A Daughter of Symphony
by Louiii
Summary: This is the story of a rouge assassin, Tath. She is more than she lets on, however, as she has a extremely powerful exsphere and Cruxis Crystal, and has mysterious contacts with Yuan. She doesn't care for anyone, until she meets Lloyd's group...
1. Prolouge: Rouge

_ Note: Hi everyone! In this story I will hop a lot in Tath's life, but I will always mark those hops with and then write which age she is. At age 19, it is present time, which is the time of Lloyd and the other's journey. I hope it's not too complicated/Louiii_

_Rouge_

_19 years old  
_

_I've always been a curios soul. Wanted to know everything, see everything. I know more than even Yggdrasill does!_

She looked up from the fire and a smile spread across her face.

_Is it even possible to know more than the creator of these worlds? _

Her exhale was a mix of a sarcastic laughter and a snort with despise towards the leader of Cruxis.

'That foolish man,' she said quietly to herself.

A young man looked up from the fire, his dark hair falling into his eyes. A rather dashing young man, most women would think. But not Tatheya. Why should she?

She was going to kill him anyway in the end. For he was a part of Cruxis. Or rather the Desians, as some would say.

He was a half-elf, even though mostly known as a Desian in Sylvarant.

'Did you say something?'

Tatheya looked at the boy. He was the grandson of the recent late Kvar, one of the Five Grand Cardinals. Kvar had been a, frankly, pain in the ass to everyone who was around him. Always acting like he was the superior in the room. But this boy was not like Kvar, though.

'Wouldn't dream of it,' she replied loyally.

'Good, because I _am _trying to sleep over here, you know.'

But he was a brat. Tatheya despised brats.

_He's just like…the Chosen in Tethe'alla,_ she thought and hate for the young man with the red hair and good looks stirred up inside of her.

She wondered why she hadn't killed him yet. _No, yes of course, that damn King would be on my heels by a second. _

It was a too big risk to do something big like that. Kill the Chosen of Tethe'alla. That would sure put her name on the map.

But no, she did not want that. Not yet.

For now, she was going to be the young assassin. It was indeed a perfect idea. Who would suspect her to be an assassin? That is why she did small jobs like these. Make sure that a replacement didn't come forth or making an important General disappear.

Right now she was doing the job of eliminating the replacement of Kvar. The idea was to accompany him to the Asgard Human ranch and while inside, kill him and then steal some information of the Desians plans.

Tatheya sighed.

She was one of the assassins for a small group that worked against the Desians, unaware of Cruxis, and Yggdrasill. Tatheya grinned as she thought of the group's intentions.

What a fool the leader, Ian, was! He believed in the exact same thing as the Renegades, but did not want to join forces with them. If he did, he would know everything he wanted to know and were able to operate the ideas Ian wanted to.

But then, that was also the reason Tatheya had joined with them.

For she would never work with the Renegades, nor with Cruxis. She only worked with herself. Yet, she had some conscious and therefore chose to serve for the purpose of the Renegades. At least, their plans seemed somewhat saner than Yggdrasill's ones.

The whole act with the Chosen as a cover to seek a body for his precious sister? _Crazy fool. _

Even so, the assassins in the small group were good, perhaps some as good as the ones working for the Renegades. But for now, they chose to lay low, simply to figure out their next move.

Tatheya looked at the boy, sleeping careless. She silently pulled out a dagger from her cloak, holding it up, letting the moonlight reflect upon the clean blade. She could indeed kill the boy whenever she wanted to. Whatever information Ian sought for she could take from her mind. For indeed, she knew more than he did, she simply chose not to tell him. Too much of the truth would perhaps not be good.

_All this trouble for the cause of a boy's sister? It is best Ian doesn't know about Cruxis intentions, or even about the two worlds! _

She had managed to fool the boy that she was a poor merchant, simply looking for protection on her way to Asgard.

He thought he was the superior one. But no, Tatheya was the superior one. Now the power of life in her hand, she lowered the dagger to his throat, hearing his soft breathing…


	2. A Seraphim

_A Seraphim_

By perhaps two hours to dawn, Tatheya pulled the hood of her cloak over her crimson coloured hair and picked up her pace. She wanted to reach the woods before morning.

She was a beautiful young woman in her late teens. Nineteen years she had walked the world, or more like the world_s_.

Some that knew her very well would say that she had her father's eyes, dark blue. But then, she did not have anyone that knew her well, she never let anyone close, and she hadn't told anyone where she was from, or who her parents where.

Sure, she had been born in Tethe'alla but had since a child known about the two worlds and has since then travelled frequently between them.

She gave a sudden smile. Now that the grandson of Kvar was gone, she had some days off before she had to report to Ian.

She looked up to the east and her eyes caught the Tower of Salvation and she suddenly realised something.

_The Chosen of Sylvarant! She's probably reached the Tower by now, but what happened? _

She suddenly gave a resistant groan as she realised what she had to do.

In order to find out more she had to go to the Renegades and ask Yuan of the latest news. Indeed she had been lazy to update herself on the Chosen. And here she bragged on about knowing everything!

The latest news she had found out about the group was that they had killed Kvar. And that was at least a month ago.

As the sun was on the brink of rising she finally reached the woods. She stepped forth to a set of bushes. They would seem like ordinary bushes, but in fact, they worked as a camouflage to…

She pulled away the bushes, one after one, to finally give way for an ice blue and white Rheaird. It was small, and formed to give ultimate speed. It had been designed for spying by the Renegades and Tatheya had stolen it on her last visit to them.

She could not use it a lot in Sylvarant since it was a shortage of mana, but it had a direct link to a large supply of mana from the Renegade's base so she managed to use it anyway.

She turned it on and she could feel the mana flowing within. She then mounted it and hovered fast up in the sky, hid in the clouds where no one could see her.

She then turned her direction towards Triet.

She had indeed heard about Kratos joining the Chosen's group. Why hadn't Yuan done something about it? With Kratos they would indeed the reach the Tower of Salvation, and fulfilling Yggdrasill's goal, faster.

_Why did he_ _join the group?_

Tatheya had indeed heard much about the angel Kratos. The way he was described was as a cold-blooded murderer.  
_Well, I guess if you'd live four thousand years your feelings would become kind of…dull. _

Tatheya had only seen Kratos twice, though. Once as a small child, only, she was not aware of whom he was then, and once a few years ago, when she was at Yuan's base, Kratos had come by. She'd been in the room, talking to Yuan, as one of his workers had come by, bearing the words 'Lord Kratos is here.'

_(16 years old.)_

Yuan nodded. 'Send him in.'

Tatheya knew enough to realise that she should not let Kratos see her, in case something would happen in the future. So she had sneaked out the room, but turned around halfway through to peek into the room. She suppressed a gasp as she recognised the man who entered the room.

Kratos walked over the floor to the base with firm steps, his wild fiery hair following his movements.

'Yuan,' he said with a greeting nod and Yuan replied it. None of the seraphim seemed thrilled to see each other. As Tatheya compared the old friends to each other she realised that there was a rather big difference between them.

Kratos face was silent and cold. As if years and years of fighting and hard way of living had created several layers on it, preventing it from express any feelings at all.

Yuan, on the other hand, had a face of more relief. It was not as hard and restrained. Perhaps Yuan seemed more unburden because he believed in a better world than the one Cruxis had created? Tatheya did not know.

From the moment she saw him, Tatheya knew that Kratos had more intentions than he claimed to have. For a moment she thought she could see a little of what was in his mind through his dark eyes.

Yuan had described him as a warrior, a cold one. But in that moment it appeared to Tatheya something else. Something, a hint of a sadness. But then, the moment was gone and she found herself overhearing the conversation between the two angels.

'For your information, Yggdrasill is _not_ happy with the fact that you did not come to our meeting in Derris-Kharlan,' Kratos said, walking around the room as if looking for anything suspicious. Tatheya made sure to stay hidden.   
'Please, as if you have attended every one,' Yuan replied sarcastic, the chill in his voice revealed. Kratos turned to him, giving him a look that seemed tricky, a look very unusual for Yuan to see in his old friend.

'Perhaps not, and this was not of such importance,' he said and turned his back once again to Yuan, his face now turned to Tatheya who prayed that she was not visible.

'However,' he turned to Yuan and Tatheya allowed herself to exhale, 'we did discuss the matter of the Chosen with Remiel.'

Yuan looked up, his face before bored, now suddenly alert.

'Remiel? The angel from Derris-Kharlan?'

Kratos gave Yuan a look that told him that it was a stupid question. Where else would an angel come from? Yuan did not spend as much time in Derris-Kharlan as Yggdrasill and Kratos.

'Will he be the one guiding the Chosen?'

'Indeed it will seem to be so. Even so, he's been desperate for a higher order and Yggdrasill is going to give him a chance.'

There was a silence; Yuan seemed to be bothered by something in what Kratos was saying. Tatheya took the opportunity in the lack of conversation to study Kratos more. He was wearing a uniform of black, but with leather coloured in a peculiar angelic colour strapped around his chest, legs and hips, to then be concealed by a cape of dark blue. More Tatheya did not take notice of before the conversation started again.

'… Why do you call him that?'

Kratos looked up from have been studying some papers that lay upon the desk of the angel. He had a confused look in his eyes, which his fiery red hair chose to fall into as he cocked his head to the side.

'Call who what?'

'Mithos. You call him Yggdrasill. Sure, in public he is known as that, but in our eyes he should still be known as Mithos, the one he was before this…acting this role of God.'

Kratos paused, considering what Yuan just had said.

'Perhaps. But he is not that boy anymore, you will have to admit.'

'And he is what now? Yggdrasill, the God?'

Tatheya looked at Yuan, seeing that he let his despise for Yggdrasill show for once. It was certainly not good for Yuan to have Kratos notice such a thing. But then, it seemed as Kratos shared the same despise, although not as big as Yuan's.

For he let out a dry and short laugh. No humour in it, just a dry laugh.

'Indeed, you are right, Yuan. He is not a God, he hasn't even grown mature in all these years. But he is the wielder of the Eternal Sword and that is to be respected. Even if he chooses to use it for the revival of Martel.' The latter part of his saying made Yuan give a small winch as he heard the name Martel. Indeed Kratos saw that and chose not to engage the matter more. For he knew that Yuan still loved Martel, and on that part he knew that Mithos and Yuan would be enemies.

Yuan finally broke the tense silence.

'Is that all why you have come, Kratos? To hand me a warning from Mithos? Surely you have not only dragged yourself all the way here for that simple matter.'

There was a silence.

'No. I came here to give you a report of the Chosen of Sylvarant.'

Yuan looked at Kratos.

'You want to give me a report of her? Me, the one who actually _wrote _the report? Why?'

Kratos looked at him from across the room, standing by the fireplace.

'If you attended the meeting you would know what it meant. We are going to study both the Chosen of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, for the journey will start in three years, and preparations are need to be made.'

'Surely it will not take so long Remiel to learn the process?' Yuan asked.

'No. Preparations are need to be made for… for I am going to accompany the Chosen on this journey.'

Yuan looked up, surprised.

'What?'

Kratos did not reply.

'What are your reasons?'

Kratos looked up.

'That, my friend, we will discuss on our next meeting,' he said and looked at him, _'if _you are planning to come, that is.'

He then left the room, leaving Yuan to his thoughts, before Tatheya re-entered the room, appearing as is she hadn't heard anything, which seemed to work.

'So what did Kratos want?' she asked lightly, as if considering the angel a normal worker for Yuan. Yuan only chose to cast a tired glance at her, leaving the mark that he did not intend to discuss it. But then he gave a sigh.

'It seems Kratos is going to accompany the Chosen of Sylvarant on her quest to the Tower of Salvation.'

'What?' Tatheya asked, acting surprised and then a question slipped out of her.

'Why?'

'I am not sure. Indeed, until now, I thought Kratos wasn't that eager about the Revival of Martel, but he just proved me wrong.'

'I don't believe he's going to do it just because Yggdrasill tells him to,' Tatheya added with a stating tone.

Yuan gave her a dark look.

'You don't know Mithos, or Kratos for that matter. You have no idea what they are capable of.'

Then with a sigh, he left the room.


	3. Blood of Pain

_Blood of Pain_

_19 years old. _

Flanoir. The snow, beautiful, falling like tiny dots of cream from the dark sky, soared past the window where Tatheya was standing.

She had reached Triet Desert and the Renegade Base just to be informed that Yuan and the Renegades had gone to their base in Tethe'alla. Not even bothering to ask why she silently mounted her Rheaird again.

And now she was sitting at the inn, situated in Flanoir, the city in the middle of the fjords. She gave a sigh and went to sit on the bed, but before doing so, unsheathing her long and thin sword, placing it to lean against the bed, appearing as if she was unarmed if anyone was to attack her in her sleep. But then she pulled out a knife from her boot and placed it under the pillow where it could be easily reached. This was an unwritten rule of the ones that lived like she did. _Always be prepared. _

For who knew what one would come and attack her in her rest? Perhaps not here in Flanoir but even so, it was always important to keep her guard up.

In battles it was extremely important. If her sword were to be knocked out from her hands she would have nothing to defend herself with but her fists. Therefore she had always two knives in her belt and if she was to be knocked to the ground with no chance of reaching them, a knife had also been placed in her boot. She was indeed also able to concentrate her mana into various attacks if she was to be robbed her weapons. Mostly, though, she preferred close combat. It somehow seemed to have more speed and reality to it.

She normally didn't want to, but slowly, she fell into a light sleep, her hand under the pillow, grasping around the hilt of the dagger.

_Run! For the love of the Goddess and all that is sacred run until your legs can't carry you anymore! _

_Tatheya ran. And ran. The one thought she had in her mind was to run. She'd seen the chance and took it. She knew that all of Kvar's men were after her and she'd face a fate worse than death if they would find her. So she ran, ran and ran. _

_She didn't realise the stairs in front of her and she lost her balance, falling headfirst down them. As she finally came to a stop once down the stairs she groaned, and was just about to stand up to continue her escape when she found herself staring upon a pair of boots. She slowly looked up to stare right into Kvar's cold grey eyes. He gave a dry laugh._  
'_Well, well, trying to escape are we?' _

_Tatheya stood up, and though she only reached to his hip, she tried to look down at him._  
'_Let me go! You have no right to keep me here!'  
Kvar laughed harder. _

'_Ah, now you are a funny one,' he said and kneeled down to her, his eyes in the same height as her blue eyes._  
'_And that's why it'll be a shame to get rid of you.'  
Tatheya gasped as his cold fingers grasped around her throat, cutting of her breathing. _

'_I could simply choose to remove the Key Crest on your special little exsphere, but I enjoy more killing you with my own hands!' he said, his eyes burning with insanity.  
Tatheya managed to gather all her strength to her feet and kicked him in his face since he'd lifted her up in the air.  
He cursed and dropped her on the floor._  
'_You little witch!' he hissed and grabbed her by the arm. 'Now you leave me with no option but to remove you Key Crest! May you face a painful death!' _

'…_You will do no such thing.' _

_A sword was suddenly pointed to Kvar's throat and he sighed. The owner to the sword's voice was strong and fearless, the voice of a Hero, in Tatheya's ears. _

'_Let go of the girl.' _

_Kvar saw no option but to do as he said. Tatheya immediately backed away from Kvar, only to back into the legs of her 'saviour'. _

_She looked up, for the first time setting eyes upon the fiery red hair and dark brown eyes. _

'_Lord Kratos.' _

_Kvar's tone was suddenly disgustingly smooth._  
'_Shut up, Kvar, there is nothing you can say to make Yggdrasill forgive you this time. You had no right investigating the effects of the exsphere without his permission.'_

_Kratos glanced down at Tatheya who looked at him with big eyes. 'And on a child as well,' his eyes narrowed as he looked at Kvar at rage. Kvar quickly found himself, standing up. _

'_Now, now, Kratos. It seems that you will never be rid of a conscious. Pity.' _

_Kratos merely grunted to answer._

'_As for this child, she is to be freed, not to be persuaded.'_

_Kvar took a look at Tatheya, an evil glance in his eyes. _

'_As you wish, my Lord. You are free to go, little child.'_

_Tatheya didn't bother with the fact that he'd just let her go and she turned once again to run away. _

_It was not until she reached the free air outside Asgard as she realised that her Key Crest was gone. Panicked, she turned to the Ranch, before her vision got blurry and she fainted, the orb absorbing her very life. _

Tatheya shot open her eyes. She sighed. Memories of her childhood at the Asgard Ranch still haunted her. Luckily, her father had found her all those years ago as she lay outside the ranch and saved her as he took her to Altessa, the dwarf, who carved her a new Key Crest.

In the dark, Tatheya could still see her exsphere, gleaming as the moon reflected upon it. _A tool of death, that's what it is, _she thought.

The snow was pressed harder together as her thin leather boots walked over the ground. The Rheaird rested in the edge of the glacier, and she had to get there in order to continue her path to the Renegade base. Her thoughts wandered into what they always seemed to wander into; what she would do with her life. What if this Chosen was to fail, like so many others? Things had to come to a stop.

She hated Yggdrasill's ideas. Surely, she was a human, not a half-elf as the insane leader. But she did, oh she did, understand what discrimination he'd went through.

For Tatheya had been living in a human ranch. Her mother was from the Asgard Human Ranch, and as she was waiting Tatheya she had escaped to Tethe'alla together with her father. But once Tatheya was born they had travelled back to Sylvarant, only to be found by Kvar. Her mother had been killed instantly, and Tatheya had been brought to the ranch under a promise to be with in Kvar's 'special project'. Tatheya looked at her hand to see her exsphere and painfully remembered what it was to be in the 'special project'.

She stopped dead as she faintly heard a howl. Her light but sharp sword already rested in her palm, ready for fight. Sometimes her reflexes were too fast for her own good. She could not remember how many times she'd cut herself as her hand automatically reached to unsheathe her sword in case of danger.

Tatheya's eyes travelled up over the snowy and sharp hills surrounding the glacier. Nothing. A cold wind fled over the ground of the barren snowland, dragging the light surface of the snow with it as it did. Suspiciously, Tatheya sheathed her sword again, unaware of her mistake.

For as she continued her walk to the edge, something big and dark gave a growl to then leap onto her, tackling her, both of them tumbling over the snowy landscape. Tatheya's vision was filled with a black coloured fur.

They finally came to a stop and the creature leaped off her with a growl, preparing for an attack a couple of metres away.

Tatheya was head down in the snow. Anger filled her; she's been struck with surprise, she hated to be surprised. She could feel a sting of pain in her side; the creature's claws had dug into her flesh. Then, quickly, she got to her feet again with a swift jump. Once again she's quickly unsheathed her sword, now ready for a fight.

The wolf leaped for her, and in the moment as it would hit her she felt her body surging with power. She closed her eyes as her exsphere was feeding her with power. Then, as quick as an arrow, she dodged the wolf, cutting the side of it, as if returning the favour.

The wolf whimpered but did not give up. It lunged for her once again and she was forced to roll aside in the snow, and as she got to her feet, she stated that she'd had about enough by now. As the wolf leaped for her the third time she thrust her sword through his throat, and it fell dead down before it even finished its attack.

She stood up, panting slightly. She suddenly staggered backwards as her vision faded for a moment. She sighed.

It was the first sign.


	4. Secrets

_Secrets_

Yuan sighed and leaned to his desk, a part of his hair falling over his shoulder as he did. The scenario that had just taken place in the base of Sylvarant rolled over in his mind as he thought what to do next.

Botta, along with some of the Renegades, had come to the Tower of Salvation in the last minute to take the Chosen away from Yggdrasill, preventing him to revive Martel. As Yuan had tried to capture Lloyd, he had fled along with the rest of the group, stealing some Rheairds as they went to Tethe'alla. Yuan had soon ordered his men to leave for the other world as well.

But it was not the fact that they had escaped that worried the seraphim. He could find them anytime he wanted to, and he was pretty damn sure that Lloyd wouldn't go near the Tower of Salvation with his precious Colette again for a long time, and the revival of Martel would be delayed for some time.

But the fact that bothered Yuan was his state of operating. It was a dangerous game, he knew that. Acting to be with the Cruxis, when in fact he was leading their most opposing force, the Renegades. He was tired of living in both ways. Soon he had to come out against Mithos, show him really what he thought. But not yet, he knew, for now things were too fresh. He had to find out more about the Chosen's intentions and of Yggdrasill's.

He looked up as he saw one of his workers standing in the hallway. The Seraphim immediately got to his feet and reached for a dagger under his cape, as the 'Desian' had a terrified expression in his face, and a thin sword was pointed to his neck.

'My lord Yuan…' the worker stammered forth, as if begging for mercy. It was then Yuan recognised the sword. He exhaled and sheathed the dagger into his clothing once again.

'You sure pick your timing good,' he said, his voice back to its chilly tone. The one holding the sword revealed herself into the doorway as she kicked the so to be 'Desian' out of her way. He stumbled down the stairs, running away, and she looked after him.

'What were you planning to do with him, anyway?' Yuan asked her. Tatheya sheathed her sword.

'Well, you can't be too sure about your 'security',' she added and now turned her face to the Renegade leader. He surveyed her as she stood in the doorway, arms crossed. Her dark red hair fell lightly upon her shoulders, and he noticed that she had cut it short around her forehead to make it wilder. _Probably to make her more different from her father, _he added with a bitter thought.

On her feet she wore a pair of thin leather boots and a rather tight pair of beige pants. She only had a vest that covered her chest, revealing her flat stomach bare, with only a dark blue jacket as warmth. Yuan wondered how she avoided freezing to death in this landscape. But then, he couldn't feel the cold, so he gave up in wondering the temperature.

'I've seen you've freshen up before paying a visit to us,' he mentioned ironic to her untidy hair and the cut in her side from the wolf.

'Oh, just give up,' she said and walked into the room, tossing her sword towards a chair. Yuan turned his back to her, facing his desk.

'Well, for what it's worth,' he sighed, 'it's nice to see you again, Tath.'

He could feel her freeze in her movements, feel her rage.

'I thought I told you never to call me by that!'

He turned to her.

'It _is _your right name, no? Or are you too ashamed of your origin to accept it?'

She looked at him, her eyes filled with cold ice.

'Yes.'

He paused. She could feel him putting up an emotionless express in his face.

Indeed Tath was her real name. Tath Eya. Tatheya was a combination of the name, a name she used to those she did not trust, which was everyone. Only a few knew of her real name, including Yuan.

'Well,' he looked at her, 'what is your purpose here? Simply insulting me?'

She grinned.

'Ha, no, that wouldn't be worth the long trip here.'

'Indeed, but I assume it's a lot easier since you _stole_ that Rheaird from us,' he added in a meaning tone.

'Perhaps,' she looked at him, 'Well, I need some information.'

Yuan gave a snort.

'Ah, yes, as always. Is it for your precious leader Ian?'

Tath sighed.

'Actually, this is for my own.'

'Hmm, yes, you've always wanted to know everything.'

She rolled her eyes at him as he walked towards the hall.

'Come with me and I'll tell you,' he added as he descended from his office, his black cape following his movements. She reluctantly followed him.

'As a matter of fact, the Chosen and her group was in our facility in Sylvarant not too long ago.'  
Tath stopped.

'What? So Yggdrasill didn't make it with the Revival?'

'Obviously not. And stop calling him Yggdrasill.'

'As you wish,' she grunted. 'So what happened?'

'We attempted to capture Lloyd Irving, but failed as he escaped with four of our Rheairds.'

Tath grinned behind his back at his failure, but then a question popped up in her head.

'Why this obsession with that Lloyd? He is just a companion with the Chosen.'

'You're one to talk. You always ask of Kratos. Why this obsession with him?'

Tath looked up. Yuan knew she wanted to know about the angel. She snorted.

'Hmm, you have your secrets, I have mine. Now tell me.'

Yuan sighed.

'As they reached the Tower of Salvation, Kratos revealed himself as a traitor to them and fought them.'

Tath was silent, waiting for more.

'He won,' he gave a glance to Tath as if stating that is was an obvious end. Tath sighed.

'And? He didn't kill them?'

'Indeed Kratos fought the sword out of Lloyd's hands, but in that moment Mithos appeared, ready to kill them himself, but that is where Botta came.'

'Aw, to spoil the end,' Tath added sarcastically but Yuan took no notice.

'Why didn't you just kill the Chosen?' Tath asked.

'No, we needed Lloyd and he would probably kill us if we were to eliminate his precious Chosen.'

'Once again this obsession with Lloyd.' Tath looked at him. 'When are you going to tell what is so special about that boy?'

'Someday. It is information to important to leak out.'

Tath gave a sigh, but accepted his demand.

'So where is the Chosen now?'

'Somewhere in Tethe'alla. My guesses are they are heading towards Meltokio.' Yuan walked into a big room with several monitors in it. It was the hangar of the Rheairds.

Tath stopped by a machine, suddenly leaning for support, as her vision blacked for a moment again.

Yuan looked at her, recognising the symptoms.

'You should go to Altessa.'

She immediately stood up. 'I know when it's time,' she snapped back.

Yuan fell silent.

'Just not too late,' he added and turned his gaze to her, 'you have a habit of being late.' His voice was actually worried.

'Hmpf,' Tath merely grunted for answer.

'Anything else I need to know?' she then continued with a sigh. Yuan knew she wanted to leave as fast as she could, but before that she wanted every information.

_Nothing that I want you to know, _Yuan thought and sighed, as he knew that she wouldn't take that for an answer.

'Hmpf,' he merely grunted for answer. He could feel Tath's eyes in his back as he walked over to a monitor.

'Mithos is trying to find someone to accompany the Chosen and give him information about it.'

Tath was silent, waiting for more.

'I am going to talk that someone into give the Renegades information too.'

'But you are like the highlight of Cruxis,' Tath raised an eyebrow, 'Just go to the stupid meetings with Yggdra…Mithos, and find out whatever you need.' She looked at the seraphim, who was silent.

'I know.' Then he turned to Tath. 'Things are changing, I can sense it. It is soon time for me to reveal my true self to Mithos.'

Tath looked at him, sighing. 'And it only took you twenty years to do it,' she added ironic under her breath, knowing that Yuan would hear it with his improved hearing and all. The Seraphim sighed, well aware of his troubles.

_Six Years old. _

'My Goodness, what has happened?'

'That doesn't matter, what matters is if you can help her.'

Altessa looked up at the cloaked man, then looked down at the child he was holding in his arms, immediately located the exsphere on her hand.

'Hmm, I need to know more,' the dwarf put his words, trying to figure out why the man in front of him would bother of such a child, 'she is from on of the ranches in… Sylvarant, no?'

The hooded man nodded as he walked past the dwarf, into his home.

'Kvar made some horrible tests on her.' The man put the child down on one of the beds.

Altessa looked at the child; silence ruled the home for a minute.

'This exsphere was not being made from her, was it?'

The hooded man looked up from kneeling by the bed, upon Altessa.

'No. Kvar equipped it on her, together with this.' He carefully lifted one of the sleeves by the child's upper chest. Altessa mentally gasped but his face remained silent.

'…A Cruxis Crystal. The Angelus Project?'

The hooded man nodded.

Altessa frowned. 'But with an exsphere equipped together with the Crystal should only give the effect of more strength and the Cruxis Crystal should…'

'Indeed the exsphere is equipped to give strength, but the Cruxis Crystal has not evolved, it is being made from her.'

Altessa looked puzzled.

'Forgive me, Lord…'

'Do not say my name!' the man hissed and Altessa jerked in surprise of the man's secrecy, but continued.

'…But I do not understand. This exsphere should, if I carve a Key Crest, give enough strength to suppress the life draining effect from the Cruxis Crystal…' he looked up to the hooded man, 'but you should already know this.'

'I do and I could carve a temporary one myself, but there's more.'

'More?'

'Kvar believed, and was right, that the strength of the exsphere could be improved if he linked the exsphere directly to the body.'

'What do you mean? The exsphere is directly contacted to the body if you attach it to your skin.'

A hint of pain filled the hooded man's eyes.

'Indeed, but Kvar found a way to improve it.'

'How?'

The hooded man was silent for a while, looking at the child.

'He rearranged all her blood veins to link it through the exsphere.'

Altessa gasped, and was forced to sit down on the next bed, looking in shock at the girl.

'My Goodness, how did she survive that?'

The hooded man looked down in the floor.

'He used healing spells on her. It kept her with conscious, enough to see what he was doing.'

'…That sick man!'

'…Indeed.'

The hooded man found himself again and continued his explanation.

'With a Key Crest that method did improve her strength, but he tried the same method with the Cruxis Crystal so that it would evolve faster. That, however,' he looked at the glowing orb attached to the chest of the girl, 'did not work.'

'It had the opposite effect, draining her life, while the exsphere strengthened it. It worked as neutralising pools…for a while.'

Altessa could do nothing but hear the explanation of the man, staring in shock.

'As you know, a Cruxis Crystal is stronger than an exsphere, it is used to evolve people into…angels.'

Altessa nodded.

'…and the Crystal eventually grew too strong for the Key Crest, and started to absorb both the Crest and the exsphere. Now, as you heard that her entire vein system was linked to it and took her life quicker, and…more painful, than another Cruxis Crystal. It resulted in that her Key Crest was to be replaced every month, to suppress the effect of the Crystal.'

Altessa was silent, trying to take in what the man had just told him.

'…Why did Kvar do this?'

The man looked down in the ground.

'As always, he wanted a higher order. If the child would evolve the Cruxis Crystal together with the strength of the exsphere to become a more powerful Crystal than already existed, he would have the power to control Cruxis.'

'…But the experiment failed,' Altessa finished.

Silence ruled for a minute. The child twitched in her unconsciousness.

'Is there anything you can do?'

Altessa thought for a minute, a minute that seemed for an eternity.

'The only way I see it is to…' he looked up, 'evolve the Cruxis Crystal so that they both provide her with strength.'

'But then it will absorb the Exsphere… turning her into an angel, living on forever.'

Sadness ruled the man's face, as if he knew what it meant.

'I cannot carve a Key Crest strong enough to suppress the negative effects of the Crystal,' Altessa said, as to declare that there was no other option. 'If the Crystal is evolves, she will at least survive.'

The hooded man looked down in the ground, pain in his eyes. An incredible difficult decision. Both options were, in different ways of killing the child. Die, or to live on forever, not being able to feel anything?

'My Lord?'

He looked up. 'Alright. Evolve it.'

Altessa nodded, looking down at the child.


	5. The Backside of Life

_The Backside of Life_

_19 years old. _

'_Altessa?'_

The dwarf snapped back to reality as he heard the young woman in front of him calling his name. He looked into her deep eyes, seeing kindness; something the woman didn't show much.

'I am sorry, I was just thinking of the day I first met you.'

Tath sighed.

'You drag that up every time I'm here!'

'It is just because I admire your father's courage.'

'Courage? What damn courage?' she snapped.

'Such a high order within Cruxis… and he still went after to help you.'

'He could've helped me as Kvar tortured me with that project!'

Altessa saw the pain in her eyes as she thought back on her four years of torture in the Ranch.

The dwarf fell silent and got back to carving the Key Crest in her exsphere.

'Why go through all this trouble just to remain human?' he muttered to himself.

Tath looked at the dwarf, ready to snap back at him but remained silent. The dwarf was right, it was a great deal of trouble just to keep the Cruxis Crystal intact, not to make her into an emotionless angel.

_Six years old. _

Just as she'd woken up again after Altessa's work with the Crystal she realised something was wrong. At first she thought she was dead. She couldn't feel anything. But as she sat up, and saw Altessa and her father she realised what they'd done.

'No!' she gasped, 'Did you…did you evolve it?'

A glance at her father, that had now thrown away the hood, made her fear true. He looked at the young girl, seeing how much she suffered and regretted that he hadn't been able to save her.

She turned to Altessa. 'Take it away! I don't want to be an angel!' Desperation in her voice.

'Relax, child,' Altessa assured, 'you are not an angel yet.'

'But I will be!'

Altessa sighed and looked at first at father, then at daughter, although he was yet unaware of that they were related.

'There is one way.'

They both looked at him.

'Now that the effect of the Cruxis Crystal is reversed to feed her with strength, I could carve a Key Crest into your exsphere. It would suppress the effects of the angelism, but still give you the effect of the exsphere.'

Despite that the girl was only six years old she knew what the dwarf was talking about.

'It sounds too easy.'

The dwarf sighed.

'I know. Due to your strengthened exsphere, the Cruxis Crystal will be too strong for the Crest and will absorb it after say, one month or so.'

'What will be the effects?'

_19 years old. _

Tath sighed. She knew damn well of the effects. But she hadn't turned into an angel and for that she was glad, how much trouble she went through with avoiding it.

Meltokio, the Imperial City.

Some of the Papal Knights turned, looking with caution at Tath's sword as she entered the city. Ignoring them she kept walking, eventually hitting the rich part of the town. The ones that turned after her now were the rich and snotty women, who couldn't possible figure out what a 'dreadful lass' like herself had to do in the rich society.

A grin spread across Tath's face. Not too long ago, she had actually been one of them.

But no, her purpose here was nothing but interest to the fair ladies. For Tath was, in short words, bored. Her Key Crest was upgraded, she had fresh information of the Chosen and she didn't have to report to Ian just yet.

Therefore she travelled to Meltokio. Something always happened here, how peaceful it seemed to be.

Tath smiled. How long had it been since she came and turned upside down of the high society? Four, five years? She laughed, a sarcastic laughter, but still a laugh.

Her hand rested upon the hilt of her sword as she walked towards the castle…

She failed to notice the doors to the Church swinging open. Out came Lloyd, casting a worried glance at his friend Colette who didn't seem to respond to anything he did or said. After him came the siblings Sage, Genis casting shy glances of Presea, who was acting similar to Colette, and his sister Raine walking after, looking fascinated at the city. Last, but certainly not least, came Zelos, the always positive Chosen.

Tath would not have noticed if it weren't for the wings of Colette. Her mind reacted as fast as her body. She quickly dashed behind the wall of a house as she realised that it was the Chosen of Sylvarant. Fortunately, the group took no notice of her as they continued their walk out of the city.

Only Zelos, who was whistling on a catchy little melody, managed, out of coincidence to turn his head to the left to catch the dark blue eyes of the assassin. He looked back to the rest of the group until he stopped dead, realising that he'd seen those eyes before. But as he looked back, she was gone.

Tath followed the company with her eyes from her position on the roof of the building, sighing. It had been close to Zelos discovering her, too close.

So now the Chosen was in Tethe'alla. What were they going to do? Curiosity taking over her caution, Tath jumped down the roof and began following the company, at a safe distance.

_Six years old._

Tath stumbled over the grass, fell over a rock and fell face down in the grass. She remained there, sobbing. She could not believe what she'd just heard from Altessa, of her Father! He, part of Cruxis, the very organisation trying to kill her?

The thought made her weak. What was she going to do? She sat up in the grass, looking back, in the distance seeing Altessa's house. In the morning he would discover her gone but by then she would be long gone. How could she stay, trusting him?

No, she couldn't stay. She shook her head, sighed, and rose to her small feet. She was only six years old, what was she supposed to do? Who could she trust?

She turned in the opposite direction of Altessa and started to walk, just walk, where she did not know. Her situation didn't show any signs of improving as it started to rain and soon the environment changed from an open meadow to the dark forest of Gaorrachia Forest and the night seemed darker.

It didn't take Tath long to run in to the first monster lurking in the forest. She was surprised, she had heard there weren't any monsters in the flourishing world of Tethe'alla but apparently the Forest didn't obey under that rule and she managed to escape, running in the mud, eventually tripping over the roots that lay in her way.

At dawn, it had stopped raining and Tath had got lost many times, barely escaped the monsters, and was weary and hungry, when she finally found her way out of the forest. She had no idea where she was but she spotted a village and she limped as quick as she could, but as she finally reached the gates to the village she collapsed on the ground.

The wind fled through the village causing stirring in the wind chimes, and someone picked up a flute a played a few soft notes.

Tath slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a room that seemed empty, but then she noticed an old man sitting in the corner of the room.

'Hello, child,' the old man said, smiling as he saw that she was up. 'How are you feeling?'

Tath rubbed her head. 'Better, thank you.' Then she looked around. 'What is this place?'

The man rose. 'Welcome, my child, to Mizuho.'

Tath frowned. 'Mizuho? What's that?'

The man chuckled and offered a hand to help her up. 'Someday you will know.'

Tath rose up to her feet and looked at the man, as he looked down at her.

'Where did you come from, child?'

Tath looked out the window, something sad in her eyes.

'Nowhere, and I'm not going back.'

The man gave a small smile.

'Then, what is your name?'

'Tatheya.'

Tath didn't know what it was that made her give the man that name, but there was something telling her no one should know of her true identity. She couldn't stand it.

'Well, Tatheya, you may stay here for as long as you like. Is there something you like?'

The question was as simple as that, but it proved to be the foundation of Tath's whole life.

She looked up from the floor, her eyes dark. The hunger for revenge burned in her.

'I want to fight.'

_19 years old. _

'Coooooooolette!'

'Zelos, what are you doing?' Genis came up to the two Chosens. Zelos raised an eyebrow, eyeing Colette.

'She really doesn't respond to anything,' he said. Genis sighed.

'I know.'

Tath followed them, her hand resting on the hilt on her sword. There was something about the group that made her… feel pity, she realised.

They were just a bunch of kids from the declining world. What were they supposed to do? They were heading for the bridge.

To Sybak? Tath didn't know, but she wanted to. She picked up her pace, trying to get closer.

'I hope the Research Academy will be able to help her,' Raine said, putting her hand on her younger brother's shoulder.

'I wonder what Sybak's like…' Lloyd wondered, his excitement taking over again.

Tath nodded thoughtfully to herself. So they were going to Sybak. To help Colette? That didn't make sense. What could the Research Academy do? She shrugged inwards.

Suddenly she stepped on a twig and as it snapped the Chosen of Sylvarant turned. Damn. Tath had forgot that she had improved hearing and she quickly dashed in by some bushes.

Lloyd stopped as he saw Colette's reaction. He looked behind them.

'Hmm, that's funny,' he said

Zelos turned. 'What?'

Lloyd shrugged. 'Ah, nothing. Let's go.'

Tath exhaled. That had been too close again. If she was going to track them, she had to be better prepared.

She thought for a while. Maybe it was a good idea to keep track of them. She had a feeling they were somehow important and that if she watched them, maybe she could see the big picture of it all.

But… like she said, she had to be better prepared. She looked up to the sun.

Evening would soon fall.

With one last glance towards the Chosen's group she walked away, on her way to report to Ian.


	6. The Foundation of it All

_The Foundation of it All_

_Nine Years old. _

'Tatheya! Tatheya!'

Sheena came running down the path from her grandfather, the Chief's, house.

Tath sat by a tree, holding two cards in her hands, chanting some words slowly for herself, eyes closed, concentrating. She didn't flinch as Sheena stopped in front of her, cocking her head to her side, hands on her hips.

'What are you doing?'

'Summoning.'

Sheena laughed. 'That's not how you do it!'

Tath opened her eyes and let the cards fall to the ground. 'Then how do you do it?' she snapped.

Sheena giggled. 'Give me one of your cards.'

Tath reluctantly gave her one of her blue cards. Sheena gave a smile when she saw them. 'Who are you trying to summon?'

Tath shrugged. 'Don't know, just some water spirit.' Sheena grinned, as she closed her eyes and the card floated up in front of her. 'Well, now, watch the Master.'

Tath sighed. _Easy for you to say, when you've learned it. Just 'cause your granddad is the Chief. Why won't he teach me the art? _

'I summon thee, Holy Spirit of the Water…'

Tath raised an eyebrow as she watched Sheena fall silent for a moment as she concentrated. Then she rose a hand to the sky and opened her eyes. '_Come_!'

A few moments later, a little bit of water squirted out the ground, enough to drown a poor bug that happened to cross its way.

Tath gave a wide grin. 'Impressive. I seen you've learned a lot from the Chief,' she said sarcastic.

Sheen folded her arms. 'Shut up!'

Tath giggled. Sheena was the only one as close to a friend as one could be to Tath. She didn't let her close but Sheena didn't care, so their relationship worked out.

'So what did you want that was so important, before you came and interrupted me?' Tath asked and picked up her cards.

Sheena gave a smile again.

'Oh, right! Grandfather wants to see you.'

Tatheya stopped and looked up at Sheena. 'The Chief? Why?'

Sheena shrugged. 'Beats me. But it sounded important.'

Tath looked at the Chief's house. 'Alright then.'

She rose, brushed of her clothes and walked with a high head to the Chief's house.

She'd barely opened the door when she heard the old man's voice. 'Enter, my child.'

She did as he said and kneeled down before him, her forehead touching the floor, and didn't rise until he told her it was okay.

'Tatheya, you, as Sheena, are soon going to turn into the age of ten. And since you are not a born Igaguri follower, I must give you a choice.'

Tath frowned. 'A choice?'

The Chief sighed. 'You may stay here, but then you may not leave for another five years. I think you have heard by now that this village is a secret one and no one except we who live here know where it is. It is in our tradition that no… outsiders may enter, but you were an exception.'

Tath frowned, wondering what his point was.

'But, however, if you ever want to leave the village before that, you must do that now, but then… you can not return.'

Tath, oddly, wasn't saddened by the news. She felt something else, like something was being set into motion.

The Chief poured some tea to himself and Tath.

'I've been watching you for all these years, Tatheya, and… I think you already know what you want.'

Tath looked up at him. 'I cannot stay.'

The Chief smiled. 'I thought so. Then please have this in mind: In this world be live in, it is better to have your fate in you own hands than someone else's.'

Tath nodded, not knowing then how big part those words would play in her future.

'Must I leave now?'

The Chief smiled. 'Of course not, stay for a while. I think you know when it is time to leave.'

'Alright, come on!' Sheena stood with her cards ready in hands, looking at Tath with a daring hint in her eyes.

Tatheya watched as the Chief stood outside his house, a group of men kneeling before him. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but she could at least tell that the men were from the smithy. The presented a wooden box to the Chief who carefully opened it. He picked up a long, thin sword, beautifully carved, shining like frost in a cold winter morning. The Chief swung it a couple of times, smiled satisfied and nodded to the men. Tath was in awe of what she saw. She never thought a weapon could be beautiful, but that sword was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

'Hey, Tatheya!'

Tath snapped out of her thoughts and turned back to Sheena, seeing that she was getting ready for an attack. The girl moved fast, as fast as she could, but thanks to Tath's exsphere that no one knew about, Sheena seemed to move very slow and she grabbed with ease Sheena's hand, twisted it around, grabbed the cards easily and held them towards the defenceless girl.

'Aw, come on! Do you have to do that every time?'

Tath grinned and tossed the cards back to her, her eyes turning to the Chief again, seeing him walk into his house with the box in his hands.

For the next few days, Tath tried to find as many reasons she could to go to the Chief's house, just to see the sword. It was still in it's box that was locked, but each time Tath went to the Chief, pretending to be asking about her trip away, she studied it discreetly, trying to solve how to open it.

But then there was another problem. The Chief never left anywhere without it. He always carried it with him. After much secret study Tath found that the only time he left it alone was at night. It was in his chamber, by his bed, but if one was very silent, one could take it...

_19 years. _

'Ah, Tatheya, welcome,' Ian said as the guards escorted her too his office in a hideout under Asgard.

'Hello, Ian,' she said, releasing the hilt of her sword, relaxing.

'Tell me now, how did the mission go?'

Tath shrugged. 'Kvar's grandson is dead, no one saw me.'

Ian nodded, then looking at her. 'And what did you find out?'

Tath sighed. What was she going to tell him? She decided she might as well tell him about the Angelus Project. He wouldn't know a thing about what it meant, anyway.

'The Angelus Project? Interesting. It sounds almost like your exsphere and Crystal.'

Tath nodded. Ian was the only one, besides her father, Altessa and Yuan that knew about her past in the ranch, and the situation of her exsphere. Although she hadn't told him what effects of the Cruxis Crystal had on her. She'd merely told him that her body didn't work as others, due to the fact that Kvar linked all her blood veins through her exsphere. Not even Tath was sure of how strong she could be with that.

'Yes, after all, it _was _in the Asgard Ranch they did this to me. It is probably based on the same plans,' Tath shrugged.

Ian nodded thoughtfully. 'Indeed.'

Tath looked around. She didn't want to stay too long, she wanted to see what happened to the Chosen's group.

'Well, what do you want from me now?'

Ian looked up. 'Actually, nothing. We have temporarily slowed down the Desians. Let's see how they react and than go from there. I'll send for you when I need you.'

_But you won't find me_, Tath smiled to herself. She would do as always, drop in when she felt it was needed and he wouldn't complain. Tath then said goodbye to him, thinking amused how satisfied he seemed over their 'victory'. If he really were to find out the truth about it all he would probably die from astonishment.

Tath grinned and walked out, not knowing that her words would soon come to a terrible truth.

_Nine years. _

It was the darkest night on a long time. The moon was clouded and everyone seemed to be asleep, even the birds that used to sing even though it was night. Yes, all were asleep, saved for one. Tath was moving silently through her small room, taking the small bag, already packed, with her out the room. She looked back to the little house. It was time to leave Mizuho.

Then she turned to the Chief's house. But not entirely yet.

The door to his house slid up without a sound and Tath crept over the floor, her exsphere giving her strength to be as silent as she was. She could hear the soft breathing over the sleeping Chief. She kneeled down beside his bed and carefully placed her small hands on the wooden box, knowing exactly how to open it. It soundlessly lifted and Tath, almost unable to control her excitement, slowly lifted the sword she'd longed for so intensive. But she only had time to admire it for seconds before she had to enwrap it in a white cloth. Then she left the house as silently as she'd come.

She went to the gate and stopped. She gave a sigh, but she didn't turn. Instead she lifted her bag again and left the village.

She wouldn't see Mizuho again for nine years.


	7. Blood Stained Truth

_Blood Stained Truth_

_19 year olds. _

The Rheaird soared silently through the air. Tath scanned the ground, looking for any signs of the Chosen and her group. Nothing. But as the Rheaird moved over the wild grown trees and bushes, something of it felt familiar to Tath. But that had been a long time ago, in another world…

* * *

_Ten years old. _

Sylvarant. Tath hadn't been there since… since the Ranch. Her new sword hung by a belt around her hips, still shining like frost. She reached to her pocket, wondering how much Gald she had. Well, enough, anyway. She turned her steps to the only city in Sylvarant she knew: Asgard.

She stopped at the entrance. The calm winds made the windmill turn slowly. If only Tath could feel so peaceful too.

'That's a cool sword.'

The voice made Tath spin around, grasping her sword, more to protect it than use it. A boy stood behind her, around her own age, maybe a few years older, with brown hair and pale clothes. He wasn't rich, but not poor either.

Tath surveyed him with a raised eyebrow. 'Yeah, I know.' She then turned her back to him again.

'Where'd you get it?'

Tath started walking to get rid of the boy, looking for the nearest shop.

'Huh?' He didn't surrender.

'None of your business,' Tath replied coolly, ignoring him, hoping he would get the hint.

'Suit yourself,' the boy said and fell silent, so long that Tath thought she'd lost him.

'Where'd you come from?'

Tath stopped, fought the urge to lash out at the boy and then slowly turned.

'Don't you have somewhere to be?'

'No.'

Tath sighed irritated. 'Let me put it this way. Get lost!'

The boy suddenly looked sad. 'I would go, but I don't have any friends to go to.'

Tath sighed. '…All right.'

The boy immediately lightened up. 'What's you name?'

Tath sighed inwards. 'Tatheya.'

'I'm Pietro.'

_Well, good for you, then, _Tath sighed.

'Where are you from?'

'What do you mean?' Tath asked, as she was looking around for a shop.

'Well, where do you live?'

'Outside the city,' Tath shrugged, finally finding what she was looking for, a little shop by the caves.

Pietro was, for once, silent, as she was purchasing the gels and bottles she needed. As she had packed them down, he started talking again.

'Have you ever ridden a dragon?'

Tath stopped in her movement, and looked at him.

'…That came out of nowhere,' she said to herself, then turned her gaze to the boy. 'What are you, stupid? You can't ride a dragon, they're dangerous!'

'Nu-uh,' he said, grinning, and shook his head. 'There's this man who has dragon tours, and his dragons are kind. He has them right outside the city. You should see them!'

Tath didn't know why, but she hooked on to the idea. A dragon meant a transport. It was before Tath knew about the existence of Rheairds, and she reluctantly followed the happy boy.

* * *

_19 years old. _

There! The Fooji Mountains! She stopped the Rheaird and looked down. The group was now heading up towards the top.

Why? She moved the Rheaird so she could get a better view of the top. There was nothing there. Curious, she programmed the Rheairds for auto landing, and as it started to move she took a deep breath and jumped up, off the Rheaird, made a backflip in the air to then fall down quickly at the ground. The wind roared in her ears and made her eyes fill up with tears.

But she wouldn't crash on the ground. No, she knew exactly how to land. She closed her eyes and concentrated…

_Ten years old. _

'This here, is sweet little Chip. Isn't he cute?'

The young greenish dragon carefully walked up to Tath to blow at her with a warm breath.

'He's boring,' Tath couldn't help to whisper to Pietro, but he didn't pay any attention.

'Are these all the dragons you have? I might be interested in one a little bit more…lively one,' Tath asked the man, looking suspiciously at Chip as she nosed around in her bag for sweets.

The man looked down at Tath, surprised how mature she seemed in her talk, yet so little in age.

'How old are you?' he asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Eleven,' Tath replied with a strong gaze.

The man shrugged and gave up.

'Well, there's one, here in the back.'

Tath followed him, suddenly hearing strange noises from their destination. Roaring, pounding and something that sounded like flapping, wings maybe.

Tath was met by the sight of a dragon, a little smaller than Chip, in a dark reddish colour with bright green eyes, his wings turning dark blue at the tip of his wings. But the dragon wasn't exactly as nice as Chip. It tugged its rope that tied him to a pole, flapping his wings and gave small shrieks time to time.

'What's his name?' Tath asked impressed, aware of Pietro trying to hide behind her back.

'Napoleon,' the dragon man said and looked depressed at the wild animal.

'Napoleon? That's a strange name', Tath remarked, watching the dragon as he had detected her, and was blowing warm smoke in her direction, studying her suspiciously.

'Indeed, but it kind of suits him.'

Tath tasted the name. Napoleon. It seemed like a proud name, and the man was right, it suited him.

'Too bad I can't keep the wild bastard.'

Tath looked up. 'What?'

'He's a danger to my customers. Can't keep him.'

Tath guessed he wasn't exactly going to sell him, more execute him.

'Why not just sell him?'

The man gave a laugh. 'Who do you think wants him? He's yours for five gald,' he said, joking.

But Tath was every bit serious as she looked at the man.

'Deal.'

* * *

_19 years old. _

She landed softly at a rock, crouching down to be out of visibility. Soon the group came, Zelos in the front. The wind was blowing so hard, not even Tath with her sharp ears could make out the conversation.

She sided to merely watch the group. She gave a shrug to herself. After all, what interesting could happen here?

A second after her last thought though, the group below her ran straight into a trap. A impenetrable force field suddenly surrounded the group, saved for the numb Colette. And then, out of nowhere, a group of Renegades showed up, along with - Tath's eyes narrowed - Yuan. The Seraphim positioned himself directly under the rock Tath was crouching on, and she pressed herself closer to the hard surface, trying to blend into the rock. Now, as things became more interesting, she craned her neck, trying to overhear the conversation through the hard wind.

'You've walked right into my trap, fools!' Hearing Yuan's voice and his nack for giving really clichéd lines gave Tath the urge to tune out the conversation again, but still, kept listening.

Lloyd gave a grin, and suddenly turned to Zelos, the one who had led the party, and also, into the trap. '…He just called you a fool. '

The little girl, Presea was her name, Tath thought, turned. 'Zelos… is clumsy.'

Zelos hung his head in depression. 'Gah…I'm so sad now…'

Tath gave a satisfied grin to herself. She decided that this little Presea girl was definitely someone she liked.

Yuan gave a frustrated sigh at the group's conversation, and nodded to his worker.

'You. Retrieve the Rheairds.'

The 'desians' he had with him walked away, with a 'Yes, Sir!' and left Yuan alone to talk to the group.

'This time you're mine, Lloyd.'

Tath rose her eyebrows. Oh, right, the whole Lloyd thing. What was with that kid anyway?

' ..damn!' Lloyd swore to himself, but Tath tuned it out as she suddenly noticed, the leader of the Grand Cardinals, Pronyma appearing. She knew what Pronyma was after, though. Colette.

'Oh? Lord Yuan,' she asked, puzzled over his presence, 'What brings you to this place?

Suddenly Genis perked up, whispering something to Lloyd. 'I've think I've seen that lady somewhere before…'

Yuan crossed his arms, looking at Pronyma in slight irritation. ' I should ask you the same, Pronyma. The role of you Desians is to wreak havoc upon the declining world!'

Pronyma merely shot him a cool look, continuing past him. 'I have come here on Lord Yggdrasill's order to retrieve Colette. Please turn her over to me.'

'Fine,' Yuan grunted, 'But in exchange for handing over the Chosen, I am taking custody of Lloyd. I trust you have no objections?'

Pronyma watched him with raised eyebrows. She could not imagine what Yuan would want with a human. 'I have received no orders in regards of him, so, please do as you wish, my lord,' she settled for saying though.

Then, with a flutter of a light sigh, she floated over to where Colette was, a slight wicked grin on her face.

'Colette!' Lloyd exclaimed, 'Don't go!'

Pronyma gave a short laughter. 'A futile effort. Your words cannot reach a Chosen who has lost her soul.' Then she suddenly fell silent, pausing for a while, as she discovered something on Colette's Cruxis Crystal. 'What is this? Why is there such a crude Key Crest upon the Cruxis Crystal?' She did not wait for an answer, as she continued. '…How pathetic. I shall remove this ugly thing at once.'

As she moved to remove it though, something strange happened. Even Tath was surprised, as she raised her eyebrows. Colette came to life.

'N…no!' she shrieked, her eyes turning from their menacing shade of red, back to her dark blue ones, 'This is a birthday present that Lloyd gave me!'

Tath rolled her eyes. _She's alive, and yet she keeps ranting about the boyfriend…_

Genis looked at his friend in shock. 'Colette… spoke!'

'Colette!' Lloyd cried out incredulous. 'Are you back to normal!'

Colette, coming back to her full senses, looked around. 'What? Why is everyone… inside that thing?' she asked, referring to the force field, capturing her friends.

Yuan's eyebrows knitted together in frustration. 'Impossible! There's no way that pitiful Key Crest could restrain the Cruxis Crystal!'

Tath gave a yawn. This conversation was boring her out. She tuned out of it, sitting back on the rock again, merely watching the scene below her. Colette, joyous of being back, suddenly tripped over a switch, freeing everybody else. Tath raised an eyebrow. _This should make things more interesting, _she thought, although at the same time feeling slightly bored. She started looking for a way down the rock, without being spotted. As she looked up again towards the group, she saw that they were fighting Pronyma. She paused, a sort of impressed look upon her face. _Well, what do you know…_

Then, ignoring them again, she slowly crept down the big rock she was residing on and down to the ground. She doubted she even had to creep, the others wouldn't notice her if she was throwing explosions around her. Crouching behind a couple of boulders, closer to the group, she watched as the battle came to an end. To her surprise, Lloyd and the others won.

Panting slightly, Lloyd watched as Pronyma collapsed on the ground, and immediately turned his gaze towards Yuan. The seraphim looked at him sourly, as Lloyd opened his mouth to speak. 'This is the perfect opportunity! Yuan! I'm going to settle our score right now!'

Something very surprising happened then. As Lloyd rushed forth, unsheathing his swords, raising them to attack Yuan, someone appeared, blocking his blow right in front of Yuan. Tath's eyes widened. It was Kratos.

Lloyd seemed equally shocked to see Kratos, but perhaps not by the same reason as Tath. 'Kratos!' he exclaimed.

Yuan, his wings out, turned to the seraphim, irritated.

'…What are you doing here?'

Kratos, his arms folded, did not even look at Yuan. 'Leave, Yuan. Lord Yggdrasill has summoned you.'

Tath crept even closer to them, wanting to see more of Kratos. He was wearing a dark suit, with straps of white leather over it, his red hair flowing in the wind, getting in his face.

Yuan's expression was now murderous. He growled. 'Are you taking the Chosen?'

Kratos finally turned his eyes to the man, his eyes cold as stone. 'No… we shall leave her for now. It's the toxicosis.'

Yuan paused. '…I see. Lloyd, our battle will have to wait.'

And with that, he turned and flapping his wings once, he soared of the cliff, towards the sky. Sheena gave a frustrated sigh. 'He's an angel, too!' she asked, but no one responded, as Lloyd had already run to the edge of the cliff, shouting after Yuan. 'Dammit, Yuan! Wait!'

He had forgotten about Kratos, who was looking at him, his arms still folded, one eyebrow raised coolly.

'…What are you doing?'

Lloyd, realising he was still there, turned around. '..What?'

Kratos continued, not even bothering to take a breath. 'Why have you come all the way here to Tethe'alla?'

Lloyd, kind of surprised by the question, searched for an answer. 'I'm here to save Colette…'

Kratos regarded him, suddenly a bit irritated. 'What good will saving the Chosen do? The relation of the two worlds vying for each other's mana will not change.' Then his voice suddenly turned calm again. 'Their positions have merely been reversed by the regeneration ritual.'

Sheena, alarmed, looked up. 'Has Tethe'alla begun to decline?'

Kratos turned to look at the Tower of Salvation. 'The Tower of Salvation can still be seen from this world as well. As long as that exists here, it means that this world is still flourishing. Although, in the event that the Chosen becomes Martel's vessel, Tethe'alla will surely bid farewell to its era of prosperity.'

Lloyd became frustrated. 'Dammit, isn't there anything that can be done!'

Tath tuned out of the conversation again, as Lloyd was complaining about the worlds, hearing his words in her head. _Isn't there anything that can be done? _She gave a sigh. _I wish I knew…_

She looked up to the scene, listening as Lloyd vowed to save the worlds.

Kratos looked at Lloyd, his tone implying something strange. 'If you want to do something about it, use your own head. …I though you weren't going to make any more mistakes?'

Tath frowned. The way Kratos spoke, it was almost as he was encouraging Lloyd and the others. But he was with Cruxis…right?

Lloyd looked at him, his eyes narrowed. 'Yeah, I'll do it. This stupid system of two worlds stealing mana from each other… I swear I'll change it!'

A lopsided grin appeared on Kratos' lips. 'Heh… well, do you best.'

And with that, he flew off, with the wounded Pronyma by his side.

Tath paused, thinking for a moment, as the group was deciding what to do next. The words of Kratos were still ringing in her ears. It seemed for a moment like he wasn't with Cruxis at all… And she couldn't help to think of the time he had saved her in the Asgard ranch, where he had openly threatened Kvar, someone of Cruxis, to save her. Frowning, but ignoring her thoughts, she snapped up Lloyd's and the others' words.

'Now what shall we do?' Raine asked, 'Since Colette has regained her soul, there's nowhere for us to head immediately back to Sylvarant, but…'

Lloyd suddenly looked back at the group, something burning in his eyes. 'We know what we have to do! We're going to search for a way to save both world in order to prevent any more Chosen like Colette!'

Colette gave a smile. 'I agree with Lloyd. I promised Sheena, too.'

Tath gave a sudden smile. And she used to think there were no things as a heart of gold. Colette was a living proof. Soon, the party became prepared to continue the journey, and Tath crouched behind the rocks as they walked by, snapping up Lloyd's and Colette's words.

Lloyd gave a smile. '…Welcome back.'

Colette looked at him, with something in her eyes that was not too hard for Tath to see what it was, '…Hehe. I'm glad to be back.'

* * *

_14 years old. _

Life in the wild of Sylvarant continued. Years passed. Tath and Pietro came friends, a relationship similar to her and Sheena's. She did not let Pietro close. He lived in the village, as she lived in the wild in the shadow of the Asgard Ranch, with Napoleon. Pietro came out to her almost everyday, helping her to tame the dragon so that he could later be used to ride on.

In time Tath travelled to Altessa, seeking his help with her exsphere. She knew he might be in conspiracy with her father, but she needed someone to help her with her exsphere. While she lived in Mizuho she'd had one of the village's blacksmith do it, since they were the only ones who knew the art well enough. Although Altessa offered it many times, she never stayed longer than she had to with him. She still needed to handle herself, just as the Chief had told her when she was a child. Nevertheless, she eventually started to trust the dwarf.

Tath soon turned the age of fifteen, matured into a woman and cast the child aside, something Pietro noticed and in secret, fell in love with her. But Tath failed to notice as once again, the feeling of moving on came to her.

Napoleon was about five years, still hardly trained, or ridden. She had merely ridden him three times, neither of the times did he fly.

It was on one of those days as she was sitting by her camp in the forest glade, eating a loaf of bread as a late breakfast, as they came. Those who would be the trigger of Tath leaving again.

The Desians.

They rushed past her glade, but failed to notice her as they were well concealed by the dark trees. Napoleon lifted his head nervously, but Tath shot him a warning glance, telling him to be silent. The half-elves rushed into Asgard where soon much noise started. Women screamed and smoke rose from the buildings.

Tath stood up, alarmed. She knew what the Desians were doing.

They were taking more people to their ranch.

They soon came back, rushing past Tath again, this time with people locked in carriages, screaming and crying. It was then she saw him. Standing by the people in the carriages, was Pietro. Their eyes met for only moments, as the carriage moved on in a haste.

Tath stood for a while in shock. Then the feeling started to surge in her. Anger. Rage. She closed her fist with the exsphere as she felt her rage triggering it to feed her with power. Mad power. She grabbed her bag and sword, and the rope to Napoleon's halter. She fastened her bag to his saddle and then swung up in his saddle. For once the dragon did not protest. Then she looked up, after the trail of the Desians.

They were not getting away with this. Not this time.

She drove on Napoleon who dashed forward in a trot down the hill.

'Come on, fly!' she said to him, driving him on. It only resulted in that he ran faster, eventually hitting gallop. Tath sighed and pulled the reins and turned the dragon around on the spot. Then she drove him up back that hill where they had come from. The hill where Tath knew there was a sharp drop behind.

Napoleon galloped up the hill, still quite unused to the part where he was steered by someone sitting on his back, as he wobbled a bit to the sides, but Tath kept a firm grip on the reins, still urging him forward.

Each leap took them closer to the drop until Napoleon came to the end, gave a snort with a breath of smoke and leaped of the hill, spread out his wings and…

…And they fell. They tumbled through the air, Tath grasping his neck, her heart in her throat, suddenly aware of her mistake. She had acted without thinking! What if Napoleon was too young to have learned to fly yet?

But then the dragon snorted again, started flapping his wings, and soon, his wings carried both his weight and Tath's, as they hovered in the air.

Tath gave a grin and then tugged the reins, pressing his sides as the dragon soared forward in the air.

They soon found the trail of the Desians, only…they were not heading towards the Asgard Ranch, as Tath had suspected, but to the Palmacosta Ranch. Probably to be sorted out to other ranches, Tath thought grimly.

She hid Napoleon in a forest just outside the ranch for a quick escape. Then she grabbed her sword in her hand and marched right up to the gates of the ranch and promptly slit the throats of the two guards outside the great door. Indeed, Tath had grown much, immune to waver at the sight of blood as most people did those days. She was also highly skilful with the sword, due to her many days in Mizuho and her own personal training.

Five dead guards later, she stood by the warp point that would take her to the leader's room. She knew his name was Magnius, she had heard a lot of things in her childhood at the ranch. She gripped harder on her sword. She would go in, kill Magnius, and then free Pietro and his people. With a determined sigh she stepped into the light of the warp…

As the bright light before her eyes vanished, Tath took a step forward into Magnius office, her grip around the sword tightening. She saw Magnius, who stood talking to someone. Who it was Tath could not see as he was hid behind a pillar, but Tath did not care who it was. She would easily kill him later, with all that rage pumping in her, feeding her with power.

She quickly ran, swift and silently up behind Magnius, pressing her sword against his throat. The Desian gave a surprised cry, but Tath was too strong for him, how powerful he might yet be, because she was angry. Very angry.

'It is time to pay,' she hissed, 'for all the lives you have put out.'

'What are you doing?' Magnius said to her, struggling against her. Then he cried, 'My Lord, help me!' Tath assumed he was talking to whomever he had been talking to before, but he was too late.

'It is time,' Tath said, 'to die.'

And she would have killed him, if it wasn't for that suddenly she was pulled away with a great force and thrown over the floor. She growled inwards at herself. She had forgotten about the other man in the room. Grasping her sword she jumped to her feet again, ready to face her attacker.

She pulled the hair out of her face and turned. And dropped her sword in surprise. Before her stood her father, equally surprised as she was. How he recognised was a mystery to Tath though, since they hadn't seen each other for eight years. He was the one who found himself quicker however, as Magnius, who stood behind him and had not seen his surprise, paced up to them. Her father looked at him.

'It is only a girl. You should not be bothered by her.'

Magnius looked as he was about to say something, but stopped himself as Tath's father was from a much higher order than himself.

'She will be captured, of course,' her father replied to Magnius doubting expression. 'And I may as well take her there. I believe our meeting is over, right?'

Magnius nodded, but seemed suspicious of it all.

Tath's father bent down and retrieved her sword and walked out the room before her. Tath, still stunned, came back to her senses as two guards walked up beside her, grabbed her arms and pulled her out of the room.

Once the doors had shut behind them, her father turned and with one blow knocked one of her guards unconscious, and Tath took care of the other, freeing herself. Her father tossed her her sword and started talking.

'I don't understand why you have come, but you have to get out of here. I will tell Magnius that-' He broke off in the middle of his sentence as the tip of Tath's sword was pointed to his throat. He looked at her with the blue eyes that Tath knew she had inherited.

'Tath,' he asked calmly, 'what are you doing?'

It was as if she did not even hear him. In her head she relived her four years of terror in the Asgard Ranch. Her father was the reason for her pain. He was of Cruxis. The organisation that had brought her that pain. If she killed him, she would have revenge. Everything would be paid back.

'I hate you,' was all she could bring to her lips as answer to her father's question. He gave a sigh, realising what she meant.

'Tath,' he said, 'not now. There's no time-'

'Time?' Tath snapped back. She couldn't help it. She was furious. It had been eight years since she'd last seen him, and he hadn't lifted a finger to find her. Or more, when she was in the ranch, he'd had four years to help her.

'You seem to take plenty of time to make things, don't you?' she bellowed. 'Tell me, why should I care for your life, if you so obviously don't care about mine?'

Her father was about to reply, when they heard footsteps behind them, running. He turned to her. 'Tath, get out. Hurry.'

Tath merely looked at him. She could not believe his attitude. He hadn't seen his own daughter in eight years, and merely threw her aside. In a daze she remembered herself running away from the ranch, having forgotten about Pietro and the others as she merely took Napoleon back to the dragon-man, returning him and her contract of purchase, and left Asgard.

It wasn't until later that she decided to leave it all. Why fight for something she obviously couldn't win over? She dropped to the ground and enwrapped her sword in a cloth, not wanting to use it for a long time. Then she looked up. She was going to leave Sylvarant.

Where would she go? She gave a grin.

Meltokio.


	8. Rough Diamonds

_**Rough Diamonds**  
_

_Fifteen years old. _

Tath grinned to herself as she walked through the streets of Meltokio's richer part. She was beautiful, and she knew it. Why should she live like a rouge, when she could easily fool herself into this society? The frilly dress felt rather uncomfortable, but to her satisfaction, many men turned after her. But she didn't bother, no, she didn't, because she knew she could do better. Then she suddenly heard a voice coming from a large group of girls.

'Now, now, ladies, I can't take you all home without even knowing your names!'

The Chosen of Tethe'alla laughed to himself as all the girls giggled by his comment.

'Really? I'll take that bet.'

Suddenly Tath appeared in front of him, her red hair flowing of her shoulder. The Chosen looked up at her, taking in her figure and beauty. And as their eyes met, his pale blue ones and her dark ones, it didn't take them long to find the heat between the covers in the Chosen's dark bedroom.

* * *

_19 years old. _

Tath crouched behind a tree, well out of visibility, watching the group as they stood outside the great forest of Gaorrachia. She had now followed for an amount of days, watching the group.

'You really sure this is the place?' Genis asked Sheena, clearly frightened by the dark wood.

Sheena merely shot him a look and stepped into the woods, and the rest of the party followed.

Tath followed them, not fearing the forest. After all, in her time in Mizuho, she had been running around in there all the time. What bothered her, however, was a strange feeling she had. She wanted to meet them. Well, not Sheena or Zelos, who she had met before, but the others. She wanted to prove herself. Meet them in battle.

And as she walked into the forest, she realised this was the time to do it. She could attack them, beat them, and then leave without a trace before they could follow her. She knew she was making a huge mistake as she decided this, but she couldn't not help her curiosity. After all, she wanted to _know _who these people were.

* * *

_15 years old. _

Tath slowly opened her eyes to find herself gazing into the pale blue eyes of the Chosen. He ran a finger softly down her cheek.

'You're beautiful,' he suddenly said. They were in the Chosen's bedroom, lying in his big bed. There was something strangely peaceful to it all. The morning sun was shining in through the open windows, the wind catching on to the drapes by the Chosen's bed. Smiling to herself, she turned under the white sheet to face him.

'Really?' She gave a small smile. 'No one's ever said that to me before.'

'Well,' Zelos said and gave a soft smile, his hand now running through her hair, 'someone should have told you that everyday.'

Then he leaned in and gave her a soft kiss, to which Tath replied by laying her arms around his neck and rolling over so that she lay on top of him, feeling his muscular chest rise as he breathed. They both grinned before they kissed again.

* * *

_19 years old. _

'Aah!' Once again Colette tripped over one of the million roots in the dark forest. Lloyd stopped, alarmed.

'Are you alright?'

Genis sighed. 'She was alright the first hundred times you asked, Lloyd.'

'Shut it, Genis!'

Zelos grinned at their back, and gave a meaningful glance to Sheena, but she didn't see it.  
'Can we please move on now? I don't like to get stuck in this forest all night,' Raine said and started walking.

'Mm, we wouldn't want you to do _that_, now would we?'

An unfamiliar voice suddenly came from the trees and the group turned around on the spot.

A woman stood on a branch, resting a long thin sword over her shoulder. Her hair was almost the same colour as Zelos' but a darker shade of red, and she had cool dark blue eyes. A pair of tight low-cut beige trousers fitted her legs, tucked into thin leather boots. Her stomach was bare, saved for a white vest that covered her chest and a dark blue jacket over.

Lloyd frowned. 'Who are you?'

Tath ignored his question and leaned to the tree.

'I don't get it. What are you supposed to do in Tethe'alla?'

Suddenly Zelos recognised her.

'You're the one who's been following us around, aren't you?'

Tath turned her eyes to the Chosen.

'Well, I see the Chosen has his eyes with him, another fine quality about you.'

Suddenly Lloyd unsheathed his sword.

'Hey! I asked you a question! Who are you?'

Tath gave a grin. 'Well, if you feel so strongly about it.' She squatted on the branch, leaning on her sword. 'You beat me, and I'll tell you my name.'

Lloyd rose on of his swords. 'Bring it on!'

Tath's grin widened. 'You bet!'

Then, with great agility, she made a high jump, flipped in the air, to then land softly on the ground, pulled out her sword to swing it around a couple of times, like a ninja, then holding it ready, facing Lloyd.

And the battle began.

Lloyd, the half-elves and Sheena came rushing towards her, the rest of the party watching them, but not participating.

Lloyd rushed her, but Tath easily blocked both his swords, then kicked him in the face and guarded herself at the young half-elf's three fireballs. Then, in the same move, hit Sheena in the face with her elbow, who was behind her, picked up a knife from her boot to throw at Raine, interrupting the half-elf's healing spell, to then block Lloyd again.

The battle was going good, neither Sheena nor Lloyd had even come near her with their weapons, and she had only once been hit with one of Genis' smaller attacks. It seemed as if he was summoning up enough mana to do a more powerful spell.

Then she suddenly felt a knock towards her head and she was blown backwards. Sheena had used one of her attacks with her cards; Pyre Seal. Tath recognised it from her childhood. She made a backflip and grinned at Sheena. 'Good one,' she said and wiped the blood from her mouth.

It was then she felt the sudden tension in the air; a mana concentration. Her eyes shot towards the small half-elf, using his kendama to summon his mana to a powerful spell. Tath guessed it wasn't for her benefit. Her eyes then turned to the older half-elf, seeing her summon forth a healing spell.

Tath was then forced to quickly raise her sword to block the blow from Lloyd. Their swords clashed together, and they engaged a struggle to get the overhand of one another. His teeth gritted as he used both his swords attempting to knock her of her feet.

Tath handed his strength surprisingly well, managing to stand back with only one hand grasping around her sword. She gave a solemn thanks to her exsphere. She finally managed to use her free hand to give him a punch in his face and he stumbled back.

Tath was just about to go after him when she felt a sharp pain in her back. She spun around to meet Sheena, who was using her magic cards to fight her off.

Tath suddenly looked to the small half-elf as she felt the mana around her explode with power. She looked at him and he taunted her with the words; 'Wanna charge?'

She looked puzzled at him for a moment before he shouted out his spell.

'_Thunder Blade!'_

Tath gasped and managed to make a back flip as a sword created from mana thrust down in the ground, sending shocks of electricity around it.

Tath realised what she had to. All credit to fast near combat, but she couldn't take down all four of them with it. So she closed her eyes, made a back flip to land on a branch of a tree, rising her hands to the sky, feeling the mana around her tingling with excitement, as she chanted the words she knew well by heart.

'_Oh, holy One, cast thy purifying light upon these corrupted souls!'_

She felt the four of her attackers stop with surprisement, heard Lloyd asking puzzled, 'How can she…?' as he recognised the words she was chanting from their fight with Remiel, when he used the very same spell.

But Sheena quickly interrupted him, as Tath had the power of her mana in her palm, opening her eyes, looking at the four. _'May you have pity on their wretched souls.'_

'Never mind how she can do it, just get the hell out of here!' Sheena exclaimed as Tath called out the spell of the angels.

'_Judgement!'_

Great pillars of light filled the battlefield and they all dashed for protection, all but Tath who looked at them grinning. Indeed she didn't like this spell, but damn was it effective. Both Sheena and the young half-elf passed out from the power and the older half-elf fell to her knees, as did Lloyd, looking up at her with a puzzled look.

Finally, the dark sky cleared.

The others in the party rushed forth to help their fallen friends.

'Who…are you?' Lloyd asked, panting, looking up at Tath who stood with arms crossed in the branch, ready to leave. She'd already proven herself to them.

'You didn't beat me. Tough luck,' she said and turned to disappear to between the leaves. It was then her vision got blurry and disappeared for a second. She stopped dead.

'What the devil…?'

Suddenly everything became quiet around her, although at the same time her ears were shrieking, and there was a sharp pain in her head.

Her hand wrapped around her exsphere.

'No…not yet…' was all she managed to whisper forth before she fell backwards down the branch, losing her consciousness.

Zelos happened to be by the tree and caught her with quick reflexes, something he could thank his exsphere for.

He was immediately surprised by how light she was, and how she felt in his arms. It was something familiar about it.

But as he looked at her, he just couldn't place her.

* * *

_15 years old._

'Well, good evening, milady,' Zelos said, his lips relaxing into the grin he always saved for Tath, as she walked into the big hall, where yet another one of Meltokio's countless dinner parties was taking place. He gave a slight bow and caught her hand to lightly press his lips upon it. She gave a slight smile, adjusting the frilly skirt to her beautiful light green gown, a perfect contrast to her dark hair. Tath gave him one of the smiles that she knew drove him crazy and walked past him closely, as he caught her scent.

He suddenly caught her hand, turning her around to face him and whispered in her ear, his warm breath tickling her, 'You know, they wouldn't miss us if we just slipped out for a few minutes.'

Tath merely smiled mischievous again and ran a finger along his cheek, 'Now, now, Chosen, we wouldn't want all your female friends to miss you, do we?' Then she took his arm and they paced into the room. 'We've got all night,' she then whispered, giving Zelos a reason to grin and she couldn't help herself to smile.

A few weeks had passed since they had first met, but she had never told Zelos where she came from or who she really was. She had only told her that her name was Tatheya. She also did not show up everyday, either, knowing that he would soon get bored with her if she was easy. She was hard to get, and he knew it. Which was why he showed her all his attention whenever they met.

It was also the reason, Tath realised, all the ladies in the room were watching her with a black look meanwhile they admired Zelos. She grinned to herself as they walked and sat down the table, where Zelos was eyeing her whenever she looked up, the beautiful goddess she was.

Time passed, and soon Tath realised that something was happening to their relationship. She had always taken it lightly, as if it did not mean more to her than Pietro had, but somehow she knew exactly how Zelos would react to things, as he knew how she would. The relationship was growing into her very skin, whether she liked it or not.

It was strange, as Zelos suddenly said no to women, even when he wasn't meeting Tath. They were, Tath realised, falling in love with another. Tath had expected the thought to scare her, but it didn't. It made her almost feel…happy. But she could not love him, it would only bring herself pain.

She was lying once again in Zelos' bed beside him. He was sleeping and she eyed him. His beautiful features were relaxed as he breathed softly, his chest rising up and down. He was, she knew, very handsome and everything she could think of. But… she would not trust him. She would never trust anyone again.

And… she rose, using her covers to shield her naked body and looked out the window. And it was time to move on.

She had a feeling of unsettle inside her. Something left unfinished. Which she knew was her father. She had to confront him. Was he really that cold, or was he just acting? Did he care about her? She shook her head.

'You're up early,' Zelos said in a groggy voice, as he had just woken up. Tath turned around and he smiled at the sight of her. Tath grinned inwards. She was going to leave Zelos. She wondered what he would think as he discovered that she was gone. The great Zelos, turned down? The thought almost made her laugh. Her heart, that had almost turned warm during her stay in Meltokio, and somehow always melted in the sight of Zelos, once again turned to the icy rock it used to be.

She dropped the covers and gave herself a smile, as Zelos eyes alit at the sight of her naked body. Then she walked up to the bed and crawled up beside him, giving him a gentle kiss.

He raised his eyebrows. 'What was that for?'

She smiled. 'Nothing,' she said, although she was thinking, _This kiss…._

…._is the last one you will ever get from me._

* * *

_19 years old. _

Tath knew where she was, even before she woke up. There was a soft scent of jasmine in the air and she could hear the wind play through a wind chime somewhere, and far away someone was playing a flute in slow notes. It was all so peaceful; it could only be Mizuho. So when Tath finally opened her eyes she felt more rested than she had been for a long time. She lay for a while, just breathing, when she suddenly remembered what had happened. She sat up with a jerk, causing herself to fall down the low bed and land on the soft floor with her hair in a frenzy around her head.

She had passed out. Why? Her Exsphere! She sat up again, more calm this time, and brought her gaze to her hand. There was a newly carved Key Crest on it. Someone must have located the source of her sickness to it.

She rose, locating her boots in the corner of the room and pulled them on. Had Lloyd and the Chosen's group brought her here?

Anyway, she doubted she would find the answer if she stayed in the room, so she grabbed her jacket and opened the door. Outside a soft breeze greeted her and she pulled on her jacket.

Mizuho.

Nine years had passed since she'd been here. Questions popped up in her head. She knew the Chief was ill, how was he now?

Then she looked around, getting hold of herself, getting cautious. There was no one in sight. Well, at least no one from the Chosen's group. She shrugged, thinking maybe someone from Mizuho had found her and brought her here… when someone behind her suddenly grabbed her wrist. She reacted instinctively, reaching for her sword but it wasn't there.

'Looking for this, love?' a voice said behind her. She slowly turned to face who it was, and found herself standing face to face with the Chosen of Tethe'alla, Zelos Wilder, holding her sword. She looked into his pale blue eyes for the first time in four years, but she only felt hatred.

She narrowed her eyes.

'Let go of me.'

He gave a short amused laughter.

'Ha, nah, see we can't really do that, cause…'

'Fine,' Tath interrupted and suddenly made a quick move to twist out of his grip, made a fast back flip on her hands, hitting him in the jaw with her foot and then turned around to quickly dash away, only to be tackled by Lloyd.

They tumbled over the ground until they finally came to a stop and Lloyd pinned the surprised Tath to the ground.

'Alright, already!' she growled to him, 'You've proved your point. Let me go!'

'I don't think so,' Lloyd replied, and suddenly the whole group had appeared beside them, including Zelos, rubbing his throbbing jaw. 'You're gonna tell us who you are!'

'Alright!' Tath sighed. 'It's T..,' she hesitated,' …Eya. The name's Eya.' She doubted she could tell them she was called Tatheya, fearing that both Sheena and Zelos would recognise her.

Zelos was the only one who reacted to her false giving. He frowned, muttering the name to himself suspiciously, but didn't say anything else.

'Now would you leave me alone?'

'…No.' Lloyd rose from her.

'What?' Tath rose to her elbows.

'You tried to kill us, I believe it is safer to have you with us under our watch than after us, free to ambush us at any time,' Raine said with a stating tone.

'Besides,' Lloyd said, 'that Exsphere of yours is causing you sickness. I carved a new Key Crest to it but it won't hold for long. It is safer for you to be with someone than on your own.'

Tath surveyed Lloyd for a moment and then shrugged inwards. This was probably better, then she could keep an eye on the group and besides, she could escape any time she wanted. It would take a lot to keep Tath as a prisoner.

-

Escaping seemed harder than she thought, though, she realised only a couple of minutes later. Lloyd had designed some handcuffs that had a unique lock and at Tath's first look it didn't seem as if she could get free without a key.

Then she shrugged to herself as she sat to herself with only Genis keeping an eye on her as the party was preparing to get out on the road again. She could run away any time, then she could concentrate on getting the handcuffs away. For now she chose simply to see what happened. Suddenly she felt amused, realising this could be fun.

As the party had loaded up with gels and bottles she managed to rise to her feet, which was quite hard without her hands, and gave an ironic smile to Lloyd.

'So, where are we going?'

He didn't reply and Tath smiled to herself.

'Alright,' Lloyd said, 'I think we need to have someone to keep an eye on Eya. Let's start with Zelos and go from there.'

Tath shot a glance at Zelos and sighed. Great.

Soon they were walking through the Forest of Gaorrachia, Lloyd in the front with Colette by his side, followed by the siblings Sage, Presea, Sheena and then Tath with Zelos, and a bit back Regal, watching their back and in case Tath would try anything.

Tath walked on, looking forward, and subconsciously avoiding the roots trying to trip her, whom Colette had fell over numerous times. Tath smiled to herself, she knew this forest on the back of her hand since her time in Mizuho, not bothered by the fact that the monsters had increased.

They had been walking for a good part of the day now, getting lost on numerous occasions. Tath knew the way well of course, but didn't say anything, partly for the amusement of seeing Lloyd's frustration every time they took a wrong turn.

The only thing that bothered her was the fact that Zelos sometimes reached out, placed his hand on her shoulder and steered her back to the path whenever he thought she was straying too far away from them. To be touched by him again… She shuddered; it gave her a funny feeling.

This time he placed both his hands on her shoulders and steered her back. 'No, no, no, love, not that way.'

Suddenly Tath growled, shook of his hands and turned to him, angry.

'Do you mind?'

He raised an eyebrow, grinning, his light eyes a playful hint in them.

'What, you don't like it?'

Tath narrowed her eyes and was about to hit him, but his reflexes made him catch her clumsy cuffed hands before she'd hit his face.

'Now, now, love' he grinned.

Tath grew angrier, narrowed her eyes, trying to kill him with her gaze. But it was then she realised her mistake.

For as Zelos looked back, instead of looking at her amused, his eyes caught at first a puzzled glance, then a curious one.

Tath swore to herself and quickly dropped her gaze. Did he recognise her? She could feel him watching her intently, trying to place her.

'Is there a problem?' Regal suddenly caught up with them and spoke to them in his grim voice.

She could feel Zelos still studying her, but Regal's voice brought him back. He turned to the man, with a grin.

'No, no, big man, no problemo! She tried to do a little escapade, that's all.'

Regal watched them both, then nodded. 'Very well.'

Zelos grabbed Tath's arm and walked on, leaving Regal watching them. But from then, Zelos didn't reach out and steer her back, he merely watched her, thinking for himself.

'Dammit!'

Suddenly Lloyd stopped, once again angry over a wrong turn. The group caught up with him. 'Not again,' Genis complained.

'Oh, for crying out loud,' Tath surprised everyone by starting to talk, 'it isn't that hard to find your way through here!'

Lloyd looked at her, eyeing her suspiciously. '…Really.'

Tath looked back, raising an eyebrow. 'Really.'

Colette was the one to interrupt their argument as she spotted a monster on the path, coming towards them.

'Uh oh! Lloyd, look!'

Lloyd spun around, unsheathing his swords, spotting the monster. It was in fact three of them, one was some kind of skeleton with a sword, the other was a big cloaked dark spirit with a great coffin on his back, and the third one was some kind of dark spirit with big sharp needles that he threw.

'Oh, great,' Sheena sighed.

'Alright,' Lloyd said and turned to the group, 'I'm gonna need Sheena, Genis and Presea to come with me. You others,' he looked at Zelos, 'stay here and keep an eye on her.' He shot a glance at Tath, who rolled her eyes.

She sat down with a sigh on a fallen tree, watching as they all brought out their weapons.

And the fight began.

Sheena and Lloyd immediately went for the strongest, the monster with the coffin on his back.

_Idiot, go for the long-ranged enemy first! _Tath thought and as she saw Presea go for the black spirit with the needles she was relieved that at least _someone _on the group was smart. Genis concentrated his attacks on the skeleton to keep him away from the short-ranged people in the party.

It seemed to go well; the skeleton was eventually defeated by one of Genis' earth spells, but the dark spirit seemed to be stronger than what they had predicted, and Presea has soon fainted, exhausted.

'No!' Lloyd saw what happened and with a final blow defeated the coffin-monster and ran towards the dark spirit.

_Keep you guard up! _Tath saw it coming before anyone else. The dark spirit shot out a number of needles that barely missed Lloyd's heart and pierced into his arm instead.

'Argh! Hey, that hurt!' he growled before he attacked the monster with his Beast-attack.

'Come on, Lloyd!' Colette cheered, and Tath gave an ironic snort.

'What's with the girlfriend?' she grinned, but no one replied, she merely got a dark look from Colette.

Lloyd shot up his sword, causing several needles from the monster to change directions and then they all attacked him with all they got until the monster was finally defeated.

It wasn't until then they heard what happened by the rest of the group.

'Ouch,' Tath groaned as she looked down at herself.

'Oh my God,' Colette cried and flung her hands up to her face. The needles that Lloyd had sent flying out of course had instead pierced through Tath's chest, through her heart.

'Don't move,' Raine warned and went forth to Tath, although not entirely sure of what to do.

'Hey, back off,' Tath warned the half-elf and raised an eyebrow to the worried group.

Instead she got to her feet and pulled the needles out of her, one by one, something causing Genis to groan with repulsion.

As Tath tossed the needles over her shoulder they were hardly bloody at all.

Then she stopped as she saw the astound group. 'So? Wanna continue or what?'

'I- I don't understand, those needles went thought your heart, you should be dead,' Raine said.

Tath shrugged. 'So? Maybe I don't work like you do. Let's go.'

Lloyd folded his arms. 'We've got a lot of questions for you.'

'But not now,' Regal interrupted. 'It is getting dark. Let's ask her at camp tonight, when we're hopefully out of this forest.'

They all agreed.

They continued under silence, everyone seemed to be eyeing Tath cautious and some of them afraid, like Genis or Colette. Only Zelos carried on in his cheery tone, something Tath was oddly relieved over. She felt uncomfortable in this silence. But there was still something with Zelos. Now he didn't watch her as intently as before, more as he was just eyeing her with interest.

Whatever it was, Tath was not looking forward to the camp that night.

-

'How did you survive that?'

As soon as they had lit the fire, Raine practically attacked Tath with the question.

Tath eyed the half-elf.

'I told you, I don't work like you.'

Lloyd chewed on some chicken. 'Then how _do_ you work?'

Tath sighed. She might as well tell them. She looked up to the sky.

'My heart… is not the muscle pumping the blood around in my body.'

The confused looks on the party told her to go on. She held up her hand with the exsphere.

'This is.'

Genis raised an eyebrow. 'I don't understand. How can an exsphere…?'

'See this?' Tath interrupted, referring to the colour of her exsphere. Everyone else's was blue or dark coloured, but hers was red. The colour of blood. 'That is my blood flowing through it. All my blood veins have been rearranged to go through the exsphere.'

She paused for the gasps of the party.

'That's horrible…' Colette said. Tath looked at her.

'Say what you will,' she shrugged.

'Where did you get such treatment?' Raine asked.

Tath surveyed the older half-elf, whom she didn't like particularly.

'That, is none of your business.'

Then she suddenly saw Sheena, who was holding her sword, studying it.

'Where'd you get this?' she asked.

'Hey! Put it down!'

Sheena looked at her, raising her eyebrows, growing angry. 'I said, where'd you get it?'

'I think I told you, it's none of your business,' Tath glared back.

'Alright,' Lloyd said, 'then let's take another question. Who do you work for? Cruxis?'

Tath almost laughed out aloud at the question. 'What are you, stupid?'

The early night continued with questions in such fashion, like 'are you with the renegades?', 'where do you come from?' 'Don't you believe in the goddess?' (That question was from Colette), which neither of them Tath replied to. Luckily they never asked her how she knew to cast Judgement of if she was an angel, which would've led Tath into telling them things she did _not _want them to know.

They soon gave up, appointed Zelos, who had been rather oddly quiet the whole evening, to be the night watch and then went to sleep. Except Tath. Like she was going to trust them enough to sleep beside them.

She sat by the fire, not too far away from Zelos, who was studying her again.

Finally he spoke.

'Say, have you ever been to Meltokio?'

Tath looked up at him and gave him an odd look. 'Well… duh. Who hasn't?'

He shrugged. 'Well, cause you see, Tatheya, it feels like I've seen you before.'

'Well you haven't, so drop it.'

His lips widened into a big grin and Tath realised far too late what he'd said.

He'd said Tatheya. He'd recognised her.

He opened his mouth, just about to cry out 'I knew it!', when Tath flung herself at him, pinning him to the ground, pushing her chains to his throat.

'I swear to my Mother's grave that if you ever say that to anyone, I will kill you on the spot! Got it?' she hissed.

But Zelos merely grinned and with a move that caught Tath off-guard he turned them over, and he was now the one pinning Tath to the ground.

'Well, well, well, love,' he whispered, his mouth close to hers. 'This is just like old times, don't you think?'

Tath growled, and they remained looking at each other until Zelos snapped back and sat up.  
'Wow, Tatheya! Haven't seen you for, what, four years?'

Tath sat up, with somewhat trouble to her chained hands.  
'Maybe.' She didn't meet his gaze, knowing that he was watching her. Then he realised something. 'Why did you take off?'

Tath grinned and finally looked at him. 'Well, as you've probably realised by now, I wasn't exactly the rich lady I posed to be.'

Zelos gave a small snort. 'No kidding.'

Tath gave a grin. 'What's the matter? Still bummed over the fact that I was the first one to leave?'

The Chosen didn't reply, merely looked at her. They fell silent for a while, until Zelos opened his mouth again. 'Well, I've gotta say, in bed you were the best thing I've ever…'

He didn't finish the sentence before Tath had flung herself at him again, hitting him in the face with her cuffs. 'Ouch!' Zelos hissed, careful not to wake the others up.  
'How dare you!' Tath's face was so close he could feel her warm breath on his skin.

He laughed. 'Well, it's the truth.'  
Tath gave a groan, rolling away from him, sitting up, glaring at him. He sat up too.

'Say, why did you leave, anyway?'

Tath shrugged. 'You know, always on the run.'

'No kidding.'

Tath looked at him. 'So you did care?'

Zelos shrugged. 'Maybe.'

Tath grinned, but didn't push the matter further.

'So who are you really?' Zelos suddenly asked.

But to that question Tath merely looked at him, her eyes full of secrets.

'Good night, Zelos,' she said and lay down with her back to him, although she didn't sleep for the entire night, always keeping her guard up.

---

Morning came and the group appointed a new watch for Tath. Sheena.

It was nine years since Sheena had last seen her, so there was no chance she would recognise her, unlike Zelos. Unless she heard her name.

So Tath kept on walking as they were leaving their campsite, looking around to see if she recognised the environment. She did. Just beyond that mountain was her Rheaird. She looked back at the group.

It was time to escape.

But… She looked at Sheena, who was holding her sword. She needed that first.

It was then her chance came. A monster, in form of three wolves appeared. Tath knew that Sheena had injured her hand in their last battle and wouldn't participate. This was her only chance. Lloyd, Zelos, Raine and Regal rushed into battle, while the others watched.

Tath looked behind her. They were standing on a hill, with a sharp drop behind Tath. She looked back. Sheena was now holding the sword with both her hands in front of her, as she drifted away in thoughts, looking at the battle.

It was now or never.

Tath did a kick, sending the sword out of Sheena's hands, causing it to fly over Tath's head and down the sharp cliff.

But Sheena reacted a little too fast for Tath's escape.

'Hey!' she said and pulled out her cards. 'Just who the hell do you think you are?'

Tath decided she should give her something to think about.

'You really wanna know who I am?' she asked, as Sheena went for her attack. It was then Tath grabbed with ease Sheena's hand, twisted it around, grabbed the cards easily and held them towards the defenceless girl.

She knew Sheena would recognise the move; Tath was the only one ever who had been able to fight the cards out of Sheena's hands.

Just as she predicted, Sheena stopped in surprise and gave Tath the time to escape. Genis was the only one had discovered the fight and called out to Lloyd, but he didn't hear.

Tath grinned to them as she ran to the edge of the cliff. 'It's been nice, but no thanks.'

Then she did a back flip, jumping down the ravine. Sheena and Genis rushed to forth to see, and saw Tath running far down with the sword in her hand.

**Well, guys, what do you think? Please review!  
**


	9. Meeting of a Lifetime

**Meeting of a Lifetime**

Her hands slid back and forth over the sharp rock, sharpening her cuffs against it. Suddenly her hands slid and she cut her hand against the sharp surface.

'Ouch!' Tath sighed irritated, but tried again, patiently, only to slide again and this time cutting her arm instead. She gave a frustrated cry and pushed the rock away with her foot, irritated that it hadn't worked to cut her cuffs against it. She had hoped it would release her.

She looked down at her cuffs, and then looked up. Sighing tired; she realised what she had to do.

Getting to her feet, she started walking back towards the direction where Lloyd's group was.

If Lloyd made those cuffs, he could take them off again.

It didn't take her long to find them. They were heading back to Ozette with a Key Crest to free Presea from her current state. She waited down by Presea's house but suddenly heard noises from above. She jumped up to the roof, seeing the drama unfold before her eyes.

The group was standing with their backs to her, opposite Rodyle, one of the five Grand Cardinals, who had Colette with his two dragons.

So the Chosen was being kidnapped.

Tath shifted her weight to her other leg. She supposed she could help them. But then, why bother? They had after all kidnapped her. Instead she jumped down the roof, hid again in the woods outside the house and waited. The group soon came down, depressed, but helped Presea by placing the Key Crest on her and turning her back to normal. Tath surveyed the girl. Poor thing. She decided it was time to confront them about her cuffs, when she heard a voice.

'…So you've lost the Chosen.'

Tath turned and her eyes widened as she saw Kratos standing in the shadows, arms folded. Lloyd was the first to spin around in the group.

'You again! What have you done to Colette?' Lloyd couldn't conceal his anger and unsheathed his swords.

Kratos walked calmly, but chilly forth to the group and stopped a few feet from Lloyd.

'Rodyle is ignoring our orders and is acting on his own. I know nothing of it.'

Raine snorted. 'Infernal strife? How pathetic.'

Kratos turned his head to Raine, surveying the half-elf.

'…Say what you will. Either way, he'll have no choice but to abandon the Chosen.'

Tath looked at Kratos. Why did she feel so… strange whenever she saw Kratos? All her feelings so…intense? She shook her head, concentrating on the conversation again.

Lloyd frowned. 'What do you mean?'

Kratos looked at Lloyd with his dark eyes.

'The Chosen is useless. You can let her be.'

Lloyd's hand tightened around his swords. 'Are you kidding me? We're gonna rescue Colette no matter what! And if you get in our way…' He didn't finish his sentence, as he suddenly attacked Kratos. The Seraphim easily blocked his blow and turned his back to the group. Tath, though, could see that his eyes were filled with something strange.

. '…Then I suggest you seek the Rheairds and head for the Eastern Skies. I'm sure the people of Mizuho have located them by now.'

Then he turned and walked away into the shadows, just like he had appeared. Lloyd sheathed his sword again.

'…Just what is that guy trying to do?'

Suddenly Zelos shrugged. 'Ah, well, who cares? If he's useful, make use of him.'

His words had a sudden impact on the group.

'I agree,' Sheena said, 'Anyway, let's head back to Mizuho for now.'

Tath sighed from where she was crouching by the trees. Kratos was gone. Now was her time to confront them. She stood up, ready to step forward.

It was then that she felt a hard blow in the back of her head. Everything seemed to slow down around her, and she could feel the nerves in her head giving in for the blow, her vision failing.

She reached forward with her hands, opening her mouth as if trying to speak, but then her eyes rolled back and she fell headfirst down in the leaves at the ground.

Little did she know who stood behind her, holding his sword twisted around, using the hilt of his flaming double-edged sword to hit Tath in the head.

* * *

_15 years old. _

'So… Cruxis, eh?'

She fingered thoughtfully at the tip of her sword, drifting away. Sitting on the roof of one of the houses in Meltokio, Tath was well out of sight to most people. It was barely morning, the same day she'd left Zelos. Like she'd expected, she didn't feel sad at all. It was a relief to finally wear something else than those tight fitting dresses. At the moment, she was actually wearing Zelos' clothes. When she first had come to Meltokio, she had actually believed she would stay a lady for the rest of her life (ha!) and had thrown away all her old clothes. Lucky she'd kept her sword. So she sat in a pair of big beige pants, and a shirt that she'd ripped off, revealing her stomach, just the way she liked it, completed with dark jacket. The jacket was lying beside her as it was too hot to wear it, as she sat crossed-legged on the tiles of the roof.

No, Tath definitely did not feel sad. What she felt, was puzzled.

_Cruxis, Cruxis, Cruxis… _

Her new mission in life was to find her dad, and… do what, she didn't know. _I guess I'll improvise. _

What she realised at that moment, was that she didn't know anything about her father, or the organisation he worked for. Only what she'd snapped up at the Ranch, which, she guessed, was probably nothing.

But, she thought, smiling, she did know someone who knew it all…

Altessa was enjoying a few moments of peace, as he'd just finished his current job, and didn't need to start on his next one until tomorrow. He sat by his desk, wondering if he should go to bed, or eat something, when his peace suddenly came to an abrupt end, as his door was suddenly kicked up. In the doorway stood a dangerous looking Tath, a sight grin on her lips.

'Hello, Altessa.'

* * *

_19 years old. _

She opened her eyes, at first drowsy, blinked, then opened them again, clearly now. She lay on the ground. There was still a forest around her, but it was clearer somehow. Maybe she was in the outskirts of Gaorrachia Forest.

She sat up, rubbing the back of her head, groaning as the motion caused even more pain to it. But the motion brought another realisation to her. She was free. She looked down at one of her hands, seeing that the cuffs were gone.

It was then she realised she wasn't alone.

Tath stopped in her rubbing and still holding her hand to her head, she slowly turned around. A few metres away sat Kratos, who was wiping his flame-shaped sword with a white cloth.

Tath's eyes widened and she instinctively backed away, pulling herself over the ground. Kratos didn't look up.

'I see you're awake.' He then looked up, his hair falling into his eyes, as he surveyed Tath with his deep endless brown eyes.

Tath pulled herself together, looking back with her dark blue eyes.

'Kratos,' she said cautiously. 'What do you want?'

'Hmpf. I see you know me. Then you might as well tell me who you are.'

Tath stood up, brushing the dirt of her pants. 'Tatheya.'

She was aware of Kratos still studying her, as she looked around, trying to identify the surroundings.

'Then, what is your real name?'

Tath froze. She turned back to him. 'Excuse me?'

'Your name is not Tatheya no more than the likeness that I should thrust this sword into my chest right now.'

Tath looked at him, her heart suddenly beating fast. For once, there was someone who saw right through her. None other than her father could do that, and even he could not do it so good. She felt raw, naked, in front of this man…

'What do you want?' she eyed him.

Kratos looked up from the ground, placing the sword in the ground beside him, and stood up. 'I want to know who you are. You have been following Lloyd's group for some time, but that's not all. I've seen you before, at Yuan's base. I want to know,' he paused, looking at her, as he was suddenly standing close to her, 'where you got that Cruxis Crystal and who evolved it, how you know Yuan and where you come from. You,' he said, eyeing her up and down, 'are not the plain assassin you pose to be.'

Tath looked at him. 'No, I'm not,' she said flatly. She gave a grin and sighed, realising why he wanted to know all this.

'I didn't think Cruxis would be interested in a simple girl like me,' she then said. 'And they sent out you to gather the information. Curious.'

'I am not here on Cruxis' orders,' Kratos said. 'I want to know why you, too, are in this mess.'

Tath looked at him, raising an eyebrow. 'Well, sorry. This plain assassin will stay a mystery to you,' she then said and started walking away.

'I suggest you think again,' Kratos said behind her as calmly as before. Tath turned to look at him.

'I have removed your Key Crest, and if you don't tell me, it will kill you.'

Tath felt something stop in her. Probably her heart. She could not believe what she had heard. Slowly she dropped her gaze to her hand. Indeed, the Key Crest to her exsphere was gone, and she could see her blood pumping through the small crystal. This was different from what had ever happened before. She knew if she waited long enough to replace the Key Crest on the exsphere she would evolve into an angel…But if the Crest was removed _before _that, it would have another effect. If he had removed the Crest to her exsphere she would soon, as he had put it… die. As the exsphere worked as her 'heart', her blood would stop flowing in her veins as the exsphere would lose its power and stop pumping around her blood.

Tath suddenly stumbled a few steps to her left, the shock by his words, giving her a feeling as she would faint. She could tell that Kratos had already figured this out. She could not believe it. She had never felt so cornered in her life.

'You can start,' Kratos said, sitting down again, 'with you real name.'

Tath hesitated for a minute and then looked at him.

'Alright. My real name,' she said and heaved a surrendering sigh, 'is Tath Eya.'

'And?' Kratos looked at her.

'You tell me,' Tath shrugged. She would not tell him more than she needed to.

'And where did you get that exsphere? And Cruxis Crystal?'

Tath sighed. It had come to this. Finally she had to tell him why she had always been so interested by Kratos.

'Don't you remember?' She gave a small smile. As Kratos looked up with a puzzled look, she continued.

'You saved me.'

If Kratos remembered this he did not show, instead he looked at her, something Tath took as a sign to continue. It felt strange, having the ancient Hero and angel looking and listening to _her. _Was she really that important? Things were changing, she could feel it.

'Thirteen years ago, in the Asgard Ranch. The child that Kvar had conducted his research of the exspheres upon.' She did not continue, and she saw that she did not have to, as it dawned upon Kratos.

'They said that child had perished in the wild,' he then said, eyeing her now with more interest. Tath gave small insulted snort to herself. The one who had told them that had probably been her father. A minute of silence followed.

'So you're that child,' he then said, nodding to himself.

'I _was _that child,' Tath corrected him. She was an adult now, and lived through more than most nineteen-year olds.

'So you escaped,' Kratos concluded for her. 'Then what? Did you go back to your parents?'

Tath snorted. 'Please. My mother is dead. Killed by Kvar, that bastard.' She looked up again, remembering that Kvar was with Cruxis. 'I'm sorry if he was your buddy, but it serves him right to be dead. My mother was a saint.' Tath could feel anger stir in her, but she didn't care.

Kratos eyes drifted to Tath's exsphere, seeing it shift slightly in colour as it pumped power trough Tath's veins, as a result of her anger.

'I just wished I could've been there when he was killed,' she added grimly. And suddenly, she remembered something else. She fixed her eyes on Kratos', her gaze more intense than Kratos had yet seen. His brown eyes hardened, the way they always did when someone tried to see through him, the way Tath was now.

'You were there, weren't you? When he was killed?' she then asked.

Kratos' hair fell into his eyes, the custom look of the seraphim, shielding his eyes from Tath, as she could no longer read them.

'Yes,' he replied, his voice even deeper than it already was, more serious than Tath had ever heard him.

'So Lloyd killed him, huh?'

There was a sudden pause, just a hint of a tense from Kratos before he replied, more silently, 'yes.'

Tath fell silent, her anger trailing away, the power wearing off, as she studied the man intently trying to place his sudden tension. Then the moment passed.

There was a silence between them, a strange silence. Tath had only known Kratos for a little while, but already felt like a lifetime had passed between them. She was intrigued by Kratos, how could he see through her so well?

* * *

_16 years old. _

The Tethe'alla base was unguarded outside, unlike the rest of the Ranches. Tath could not help to wonder why there was only one base in Tethe'alla, when there were a total of four in Sylvarant. A small piece of her mind told her it was strange, but nevertheless, she continued from the rock she had been crouching behind and crept closer to the base.

It had been hard finding a boat, but with Tath's excellent stealth skills that she seemed to possess naturally, she crept onboard a large commerce transport boat and stole their lifeboat, which was small and fast enough for her needs.

She was thankful for the technology in Tethe'alla as she had cruised out in open water towards the fjords near the Tethe'alla base. Had she been in Sylvarant, she'd probably been stuck in a rowboat by now.

She barely made footprints in the soft snow, as she crept slowly towards the base. She wasn't too sure about the security here. She knew a lot about the security in the human ranches, like her own and the one Pietro had been captured to, but this one… it was not like the other ones. This base was different, she stated.

* * *

_19 years old. _

'After the ranch, what happened? I know Kvar removed your Key Crest… how did you survive?'

Tath sighed. The moment between her and Kratos was as good as gone. She could no longer try to see through him, and she was once again his prisoner, interrogated by him.

'I found my way to the dwarf, Altessa, and-'

'Altessa?' Kratos interrupted her, 'that's in the other world. Quite a long way from the Asgard Ranch, no?'

'I had help,' Tath said, her eyes turning a shade darker as she moved her livid red bangs from her eyes, much the way Kratos hair fell into his eyes.

'I lived with him for a while, but then I learned that he had connections with Cruxis, and I got scared.' Tath regarded Kratos for a fraction of a second before looking away again. It wasn't entirely true, since she'd really fled because of her father, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

'…So you fled.'

'I fled.'

They were silent for a while, and Kratos suddenly got to his feet. Tath noted that he was wearing a black uniform with the small insignia of Cruxis on his chest, and leather straps of the beautiful angelic colour around his waist, where his flaming sword was attached. His collar was slightly open to reveal a muscular chest, and to his shoulders a dark blue cape was fastened. He brushed some dirt of his pants, that fluttered off and landed on his black boots.

'We have to go,' he said, nodding towards the clearing of the woods.

'Where?' she narrowed her eyes.

He unexpectedly gave a amused smile, to which Tath realised that he was really handsome, even more so when his features relaxed into a smile.

'I don't think you are in the position to be asking questions like that.'

She raised an irritated eyebrow, but nevertheless got to her feet and followed the Seraphim, suddenly catching herself wondering what colour his wings were. After all, he was an angel.

'This sword,' he suddenly said, after a couple of minutes in silence, and Tath suddenly realised that he was holding her sword in his hands, 'it's from Mizuho,' he stated.

'Yes,' she said, biting back the urge to say, _Bravo, what do you want, a peanut? _'After I fled from Altessa, I lived there for a couple of years.'

'Lived there? I thought they did not welcome outsiders.'

'They made an exception.'

'I see. And that's where you learned to fight?'

'Mostly, yes.'

Kratos fell silent after that, and they walked in silence again. They were now out on the open field again, leaving the trees of Gaorrachia behind them. Kratos headed for another set of trees and Tath followed. She looked around, wondering where Lloyd and the others were. The Chosen, Colette, was kidnapped, and Kratos had told them to seek the Rheairds and head for the eastern skies. Then what?

Suddenly something else drifted into her mind. Kratos had encouraged Lloyd to change the worlds up on the Fooji Mountains, and now… She looked at the seraphim in front of her. Kratos was helping Lloyd. Why else had he told them where to look for Colette? She was just about to open her mouth and ask him, when she suddenly realised that he had stopped, and since her reflexes were slowing due to her removed Key Crest, she bumped right into him.

Blushing slightly, she walked up beside him, her previous curiosity forgotten. 'Why are we stopping?' she asked, but he ignored her, as he was looking up in the sky. Tath followed his gaze, but was unable to spot anything, and instead studied the Seraphim.

'Hold on to me,' he suddenly said.

'What?' she asked, looking puzzled at him. What the hell did he mean by asking that? 'What the hell- Oh.'

She interrupted herself as she noticed that his wings were out, and her previous question had been answered. They were beautiful, grand and blue, with a hint of green in them. They seemed to be formed to give ultimate speed, as he flapped them a few times.

Tath stepped towards him, as his arm slipped around his waist, and she could feel his breathing reverberating through his body. And without warning, he kicked of from the ground. Each flap of his wings reverberated through Tath and she could feel his muscles working. She grabbed on to his neck, holding on for dear life. It always felt uncomfortable for her whenever she had to rely on someone else, when she wasn't in control.

Suddenly she could hear the Chief from Mizuho speaking to her. _In this world be live in, it is better to have your fate in you own hands than someone else's._

_You said it, _she thought, holding on harder to the Seraphim as they soared through the sky.

_---_

The night was silent, the birds were sleeping, and the only sound that could be heard, was the crickets. Even Tath was sleeping, exhausted as her exsphere was now weakening her. It was the second night in her custody of Kratos and they had camped outside Meltokio, on the same spot they had landed on a few hours ago. The woods were thick, and the Seraphim had set camp in a small clearing of the woods, where he had a clear view of Meltokio.

Suddenly Tath awoke, but not opening her eyes immediately. Quite surprised over that she had actually had fallen asleep at all, she slowly opened them, letting them adjust to the darkness around them. It had been a long time since she had slept a full night. She suddenly spotted Kratos sitting by the fire, his grim face a lit by the fire, causing strange shadows to dance over it. He appeared deep in thought, and hadn't noticed Tath waking up. She sat up, and now she knew that he knew she was awake, he just didn't acknowledge her.

'How… long is it since you slept?'

The question suddenly slipped out of her, her voice the softest she'd ever heard it. Suddenly she felt sympathy for the man in front of her.

He did not turn to look at her as he replied. 'Fourteen years.'

Tath stood up and went over to the fire, sitting down opposite him, on the other side of the flames.

'Why do you ask?' He finally raised his eyes to look at her.

'Oh,' she gave a slight smile, 'it just feels good to know I'm not the only one with troubles.'

They met each other's eyes, and Tath suddenly found herself comparing his eyes to Zelos', of all people. The eyes of Kratos were so deep, but so soft far down, but all was hidden behind layers and layers of stone like substance. It was like the Chosen's eyes, deep in there, she could also sense something serious and soft, behind the layers of comic and flirting. Both men had something within them, hiding, and made Tath determined to draw it out.

'Your wings,' she suddenly said, surprising herself again by asking something she had not thought through, 'are blue. Why?'

He looked up, surprised by her question. Then he raised an eyebrow. 'I take it you know more about angels than you let on.'

'…They say the wings take the colour of the person's soul.'

He looked at her, and she could suddenly see the softness in his eyes breaking through. 'Yes, they do. And mine are blue.'

'Have they always been like that?' Tath asked, curiosity burning in her like Efret himself.

He gave a grin, like to himself. 'No,' he said and looked up, and Tath could suddenly see a whole new person. His eyes were now free of the stony layers, and he looked like a trouble-free man. 'They used to be red.'

Tath gave a grin. She could see Kratos wings in front of her. Red, like he was, under those layers. Red, like…

'I can imagine that. The same colour your hair is, right?'

'Yes,' he said, but suddenly his smile died away.

And then Kratos looked down in the ground again. 'You should get some sleep, or your exsphere is going to drain you of all power.' And like that, the stony layers were back again, and the softness crept back inside of him.

And against all Tath's wishes, she yawned, like on cue. Kratos raised an eyebrow, and Tath raised her hands in defeat.

'Alright, alright,' she said, and went over to her blanket and promptly fell asleep again, leaving Kratos to look at her for a moment and then fall into his own troubles again.

---

It wasn't until her third day in her custody of Kratos that she started feeling the effects of the exsphere. He had managed to get her to tell him why she had attacked Magnius on the Palmacosta Ranch (because of course he somehow knew that she had been there), when she suddenly fell silent and looked down in her lap.

It was a strange feeling, like the air was being sucked out of her lungs even though she was breathing.

'Here,' a hand suddenly stretched out, giving her a small bottle. It contained something light.

'It'll slow the process. At least until you're done telling me,' Kratos said. Tath took the bottle but did not drink it. She looked up and around herself. They were still outside Meltokio, and had been there for two days. It seemed as if Kratos was waiting for something. She stuffed the bottle in the pocket, ignoring the draining feeling in her lungs. She watched as Kratos refolded something, a sort of stone that glittered.

'So why do you have that?' she asked, recognizing the stone as Altessa had told her about it. Kratos did not reply, as he finished folding it.

'Is it for Cruxis?' she asked and then grinned to herself. 'What, Mithos gonna make some sacred ring?' She knew the stone was for making sacred rings, but you needed a lot of other things as well. Kratos still didn't reply, and Tath suddenly realised something. The grin vanished from her lips and she suddenly suspected that what she had thought about Kratos was true. There was more to him than the ideas of Cruxis. She had to ask him.

'It's not for Cruxis, is it?' she asked quietly. Finally, Kratos reacted. He had finished stuffing the stone in one if his bags and turned to look at her, as she sat at the ground, still ignoring the sucking feeling in her lungs. As she looked in his eyes she _knew _she saw something. Maybe it was fear? Fear for have being seen through, like Tath. She did not know. Or maybe it was utter denial, as what he next said was something completely different.

'What I want to know is, how you know so much about Cruxis, when you simply seem to be a girl from a Human Ranch?'

'I'm not a girl,' she snapped back automatically. But he had her there. What was she going to reply? But fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, she was saved by her exsphere, as when she was about suck in her breath to reply, there was no air. She was breathing, but not air filled her lungs. Her blood was moving so slow, it did not have the time to take up the air she tried to fill in her lungs. It was a peculiar feeling. Everything was silent and her vision seemed to shrink. Was this how dying felt? She could not help to think triumphantly, _at least, that's nothing Yuan could ever tell her about. Because he never would. Die, that is. _

But then her vision got black, and she wasn't so sure the dying thing was that great, after all. Then suddenly, her vision came back, as she realised she was lying on the ground, and Kratos sat by her, squeezing her hand. At first she found it quite odd to see him squeeze her hand like that, like he was worried. Then she realised what he was doing. It was her hand with the exsphere and by squeezing it like he did, with steady pauses, he caused it to pump the blood again.

Tath sat up again, rubbing her head, as she slid her hand out of Kratos', who was eyeing her. 'I think I told you to drink the elixir,' he said in his grim voice. Tath did not reply, as she was too busy being a bit shocked. If this was the effect the exsphere could have on her, how easy could it not be then to kill her? She shuddered by the thought. Then, as she noticed Kratos' stern look, she took out the bottle from her pocket and pulled of the cork. Then she hesitated for a moment, casting a glance at Kratos before putting it to her lips and emptying it.

And it worked. At least she thought it did. She still felt weak, but she guessed that was what it felt to be normal. Without an exsphere.

As she had perked up, Kratos tossed her a bit of bread, which she started eating right away. Without realising it, she had been starving. She couldn't help wondering why Kratos had brought food, if he did not eat.

He was silent for a while, watching her, something Tath now recognised the motion as a sign that he was about to tell her something and watch her reaction. But she would not react different, because she already knew what he was going to ask. And there was no way he was going to know.

'So, at least now I know how you came to be an assassin. There is one last thing… I know your mother is dead. What about your father?'

There it was. Who was her father? Yes, who could it be? Tath grinned inwards. This is what she had been waiting for all along.

'No,' she said, mouth full of bread. Kratos lifted his head, for once causing his hair to fall out of his eyes. 'I am not going to tell you who my father is, I don't care how hard you try, and if it means I have to die to keep it a secret, then so be it.'

Kratos seemed somewhat stunned by her little speech. She supposed he never had suspected her to be so determined about that thing, on account of how she had relatively easily told him about all the other things he asked about.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again, letting her eat in peace.

'Very well,' he then suddenly said, 'I have to go and take care of something.'

And with that, he suddenly rose, and sprouting his wings, he took of, towards Meltokio. Tath looked after him, drifting into thoughts.

---

Another two days passed, and Tath was now literally dying. She was pale, dark around her eyes, and extremely weak. She could only wheeze for breathing. No amount of potion could save her now. They were still in the clearing of the wood, Kratos watching Tath with a slightly worried glance. By now, Tath knew the Seraphim quite well. Not that he'd told her, but she'd figured it out. For instance, she knew she'd been right all along. Kratos was more than Cruxis. He had been all along. For instance, he was going to find the sacred wood to help Lloyd. What the sacred ring he was going to make was for, she was not entirely sure of, but it was for Lloyd alright. That's why he had left for Meltokio the other day. To ask Presea were the sacred wood was.

And she also knew that he desperately wanted to know who her father was. So much that she was dying. Gathering her strength, she sat up, for one final conversation. She hesitated for a moment, letting the silence of the night take over, the crickets being the only sound that could be heard, and the occasional hoot of the owl.

'It wasn't… Lloyd… that killed Kvar, was it?'

His looked up, surprised that she was speaking. As he realised what she had asked, his eyes met hers. '…No.'

'You did, didn't you?'

He gave a small sigh, sorrow suddenly upon him. Or was he surprised, that Tath could see through him as well?

'Yes.'

'And you're… helping Lloyd and the others… aren't you? On your own…accord?'

He lifted his eyes once again to meet hers.

'…Yes.'

She gave a slight smile to herself, before she suddenly felt all her powers leave her, and she was forced to lie back down. A minute of silence followed, a minute were Tath was forced to concentrate only to keep breathing. But she _had _to say this last thing.

'I was right about you,' she whispered faintly.

He raised an eyebrow, his hair falling into his eyes. 'In what way?'

'You don't… do all this, for Cruxis. It's like I always thought …when you first saved me, all those years ago. You are…more …than Cruxis…'

Then her eyelids fluttered close, and her breathing ceased.

* * *

_16 years old. _

It was easier than she had predicted to get inside the base. She was at the moment crouching on a pillar, watching a guard patrol outside a pair of doors. She was not going to kill anyone, she was past that. If innocent lives could be spared, so be it. Never mind if they were half-elves, who thought of themselves as 'superior'.

She knew her father had to be in one of these rooms, only…which one?

Finally making up her mind, she easily enough threw a pebble towards the stairs, distracting the guards outside the room, and as they ran away, she swiftly made her way towards the doors that were, surprisingly, unlocked.

As the doors swung open and the man inside looked up, his features tensing into a surprised expression, she could feel herself tightening her grip on her sword as she looked into the blue eyes she knew she had inherited.

'Hello, Father.'

* * *

_19 years old. _

The sunlight shone brightly in under her eyelids, determined to irritate her every nerve. _If this is heaven, _she thought, _then I don't have a hell of a good start. _

_Oh, wait, right… there _is_ no heaven. _

Which meant that she was still alive.

And sure enough, as she drew a breath, she could feel the cool fresh air plunging into her lungs. She took another deep breath; it felt like she hadn't breathed for days.

And finally she opened her eyelids. And saw the sky, and the sun. And the trees. Instinctively, she raised her right hand and saw, sure enough, her Key Crest was back. And it was working alright. She felt as strong as ever.

'Well,' she said out loud to no one in particular, 'that's something I would _not _recommend.' She shuddered inwards; dying was defiantly not as nice as she'd somehow always imagined it to be.

Then, she spotted Kratos sitting a few yards away. He had changed his mind in the last minute. He had saved her life. Again.

Maybe that was why she uttered those next words.

'Do you really want to know?' she asked, sitting up.

He looked at her, silent. 'Who my father is?' she continued.

'It is,' he said, 'the missing piece to the puzzle.'

Tath fell silent for so long, hesitating, that Kratos doubted that she ever would speak.

Finally, she opened her mouth, deciding that finally, _finally, _she would tell someone.

'Alright. My father…' her voice died away for a moment, watching Kratos for a moment for his reaction, and then continued.

'Yuan is my father.'

**Ta-daaaah! There is the latest chapter! A little surprising, perhaps? Hopefully.. Anyway, pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase review, it would seriously make my day! Lots of Love/Loui**


	10. Dawn of the Sun

**_Hi guys!! So sorry for the long wait, but I have been extremely busy with school, football and such... Anyway, here's the next chapter, enjoy!  
_**

**_Dawn of the Sun_**

****

'Impossible.'

The word slipped from his mouth almost immediately, but not before Tath had the satisfaction to see the Seraphim's face in complete shock.

'Is it really?' she asked him, studying him.

'Well, for one thing, I know Yuan never loved any other woman than Martel. He could not have had another woman.'

Tath gave a weak grin. 'Ah, yes, Martel. Well, that didn't stop him from falling for my mother. I knew he may not have loved her, but at least he set her free.'

'Free?' Kratos echoed, his face puzzled.

Tath looked up, suddenly a lump in her heart. 'My mother, was a prisoner at the Asgard Ranch, that's why Kvar killed her. When he found us.'

Suddenly Kratos' gaze turned intense. 'Your mother… was a prisoner at a ranch?'

Tath nodded, knowing little of Kratos' own past. Then he focused on the new shocking fact she just told him.

'But you are human. Yuan is a half-elf.'

'Yes, I'm human,' Tath replied, a slight grin on her face to actually be explaining something to the know-it-all, Kratos. 'But I have half-elven blood in me. You may not have seen me in battle, but how else could I be able do magic attacks?'

Kratos fell silent, processing the new fact.

'Yuan had a child. _You _are that child.'

Tath gave a sigh. 'Yes,' she said, as if admitting it to herself, 'I am that child.'

---

_16 years old._

'Tath,' Yuan said slowly, recognising his daughter standing in the doorway. It had been another year since they had seen each other, when he had left her at the Palmacosta Ranch.

'Don't call me that,' she spat, 'I don't ever want to hear that name again.'

'What are you doing here?' he asked cautiously, taking a step towards her, causing her to raise her sword.

'I'm not entirely sure,' she said, her eyes still focusing at him with a dangerous sparkle. 'I thought I came her to see if you really don't care about me, but hey, surprise, you _don't._ So maybe,' she said, her every tone dripping with sarcasm but suddenly turning deadly serious, 'I'll just settle for hurting you the way you hurt me.'

And without warning, she suddenly attacked him, but not before he unsheathed his own sword, or rather two swords, that were connected with a handle between them, that he used like a pole, swinging it around himself before dodging his daughter.

'And what,' he said as they fought for the upper hand a moment, 'do you hope to accomplish with this?'

'I don't know,' she breathed, her eyes still alit with the mad dangerous sparkle, 'revenge, I hope. I don't know, I guess I'll improvise.'

And with that, she managed to get the upper hand of Yuan, but he gave her a kick, sending her flying into the wall.

'I don't want to fight you,' he said, lowering his weapon, panting slightly from the battle.

'Why not!?' she shrieked, suddenly tears blazing in her eyes.

'Why!? Why do you not care?! Why do I always have to seek you out, but never do you actually seem to CARE!?' she was shrieking her heart out, all her pain and misery showing on the outside for once. 'I am you daughter! But never, never ONCE have you even thought of seeking me out! Never to see how I am doing! No, because _you _are part of the organisation that tried to kill me, and then I just don't matter anymore, is that so!?'

Yuan looked shocked, and Tath immediately felt mortified to have shouted at him like a little girl, but that was the way it was, and he just did not understand. How could he have simply left her?

'That's…' he started, 'not entirely true.'

Tath's eyes widened, and she let her arm with the sword fall to her side. She suddenly felt exhausted. 'What?'

'I am part of Cruxis, but not the way you think. And I do care about you. Because that was why…' he paused, 'why I started the Renegades.'

---

_19 years old. _

'Kratos? Tath? What are you doing here?'

Altessa's deep and raspy voice felt warm and familiar in Tath's ears, and she suddenly felt very tired.

'No reason, Altessa,' she replied, 'I'm just here about my Key Crest.'

His eyes widened worriedly. 'Is there a problem with it?'

'No, no,' Tath smiled wearily, 'it just needs a check up, I'll be right in.'

Altessa sighed to himself, and then entered his house again.

Tath turned to Kratos again. They both looked at each other for a moment, the few days they spent together resulting in that they both knew things about each other they never thought they would.

'Are you going back to Mithos?' Tath finally asked.

'I have not been to Derris-Kharlan for two weeks, I have to report to him,' the Seraphim replied, stealing a glance to the sky before looking back at Tath, who could for her life not think of something to say. Luckily, it was Kratos who broke the silence.

'You are lucky to have only your Key Crest to rely on when it comes to your life. When treated right, they never fail. People, though…' he fell silent, taking the moment to unleash his wings. '…can never be trusted.'

And with that, he was off, leaving Tath standing alone, pondering his words.

'So true,' she whispered, more to herself than the Seraphim.

Sighing, she paused for a while before entering Alstessa's. Now free from Kratos, what was she supposed to do? Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, her thoughts wandered into Lloyd's group. Whether she liked it or not, they were after all on the same side. They were fighting Cruxis, the exact same mission Tath had appointed herself.

And the Renegades…

Tath sighed. As little as she wanted to, she realised that working alone would make absolute no difference at all, but she had never been a team player. Many people were fighting Cruxis, only… who would she join? Would she join any one at all?

But before she could do anything about that, she had to do something else. And forgetting Altessa, she ran off to the Gaorrachia Forest, where she had left her Rheaird.

---

_16 years old. _

For once, Tath had left her father, out of the three times she had met him, filled with a strange hope. Yuan was working against it all. She had heard of the Renegades around her time in the Ranch, as a small opposing force, but now it had grown larger and larger to be Cruxis most opposing force. And Yuan, her father, was their leader.

But still, she hadn't left being on friendly terms with her father. God forbid. She wondered if she would ever forgive him. But… he had information. And information was what she craved the most. She had always been curious, and whenever she'd been at Altessa's, interrogating him for whatever information he had regarding the latest around Cruxis.

Tath sighed, sensing she hadn't seen the last of her father.

She walked into Asgard, to find food and lodging over the night, and distracted by her thoughts, found herself walking straight into a group of Desians. But they had appeared not to notice her, as they were terrorising a small child for having done something innocent, like walking past them.

'You think you're tough, kid, huh? Well, I've got news for you, we're the Desians and…'

Tath tuned them out as she continued walking. She had gotten used to seeing Desians almost everywhere she went, she no longer jumped in surprise, reliving the four years of terror in the Ranch in her mind whenever they came within sight.

Out of the corner of her eye she suddenly noticed someone. All the people in Asgard had fled when the Desians had shown up, saved for that little boy, and, as Tath noticed now, someone up on the roof of a building. She stopped, studying the black clad person creeping over the roof tiles, eyes on the Desians. The person brought out a small crossbow, aiming at the Desians.

Tath gave an impressed grin to herself. _An assassin. Well, that's something you don't see everyday. How refreshing, _she grinned to herself and started walking again, when she suddenly felt someone grip her upper arm. Hard.

'Where do you think you're going, lass?'

She recognised the voice as the one belonging to the leader of the Desian group who had talked to the boy. Apparently they were done terrorising him.

Tath gave a tired sigh. 'What?' she snapped, not even turning.

The Desian growled. 'What kind of talk is that? Don't you know who we are?'

'I know perfectly well who you are,' Tath replied coolly, turning to face him, her face alit with cool rage. 'And I would appreciate of you would get your filthy hand of my jacket. That's leather, you know.'

'Why you…' another Desian started, but was interrupted by the one still gripping Tath's arm.

'Silence!' Then he turned to Tath again, 'As for you, lucky we actually have a shortage of humans in the Asgard Ranch, maybe you'd like-_argh!_'

He didn't finish the sentence as Tath's sword was already out and cut of his arm holding Tath, and it fell to the ground like a numb fish.

He gasped in pain, backing backwards into the very angry-looking Desians. Tath narrowed her eyes towards him. 'I am _never _going back there.'

A heartbeat later, all the Desians rushed her.

Tath, alit with rage, which caused her exsphere to feed her with unlimited power, dodged the first Desians with a simple parry with her sword, then, without turning, thrust it though the back of one of them. Then she turned and grabbed the second one, using him as a shield when another Desian attacked her, causing him to ram the sword through her 'shield'. Then she used her own sword to slit the throat of the Desian that had attacked her. It continued in this fashion, until two minutes later, when they were all dead.

Tath, hardly exhausted at all, merely brushed the dirt of her pants and wiped her sword clean. It was then she noticed the black clad figure from the roof standing in front of her. It was a man, with plain features, who stood there looking at her.

'Impressive,' he then said, referring to the destroyed Desians.

'Drop it,' she said, eyeing him, 'who are you?' she snapped.

'Someone who wants to help you.'

Tath gave an amused chuckle, looking around the streets of Asgard, that were still empty. 'Help me? What makes you think _I _need any help?'

The assassin cracked a smile. 'Maybe not. But we sure need you.'

''We'?' Tath echoed. 'Who are 'we'?'

But they were suddenly interrupted by what seemed like an army of Desians, rushing into the town, apparently having heard what had happened.

'No time to explain. If you want to live, come with me,' the man said and grabbed Tath's arm. And for once, Tath let herself be pulled away.

The assassin led her to a hidden cave, which led deep underground. Once inside, the man led her to a dimly lit room, and then vanished himself. Instead, Tath found herself face to face with a middle-aged man.

'Hello,' he said with a friendly smile, 'and welcome.'

Tath narrowed her eyes. 'Who are you?'

The man smiled again, looking very friendly. 'My name…' he started, motioning for her to sit, 'is Ian.'

And so it came that Tath started working for the small but effective opposing force, led by Ian. She also travelled frequently to Yuan, to learn about Mithos, Kratos, and Cruxis, and eventually, the reasons to why he had started the Renegades. For he had started them, for her. When he had learned that her mother was awaiting his child, Tath, he had finally decided to something about it. He wanted his child to grow up in a world in peace, not one terrorised by Desians or Mithos.

Only Tath didn't believe him. At least not until years later.

---

_19 years old. _

'Yuan!'

Tath stormed into the Seraphim's office. He looked up at her.

'Tath, to what do I own the pleasure?' he said, but his voice not as warm as the phrase suggested.

'What is it?' she asked.

'What is what?' he asked, puzzled, his eyebrows knitted together.

'What is the secret about Kratos?' she asked, meeting his gaze so intense that he had to drop his own. 'Why is he helping Lloyd? Why?'

'I do not know what you are talking about,' he said with a perfectly serious face, but not before Tath saw the sudden tension in his face that inclined that he was lying. She unsheathed a dagger and held it to his face. 'Tell me. _Now.' _

Yuan sighed, backing away from his daughter. 'Well, I recently found out that Kratos… is not the emotionless angel he poses to be. He recently… had a wife.'

Tath took a step backwards, eyes widened in surprise. Kratos… had a wife?

'What happened to her?'

'She died. Fourteen years ago.'

Tath looked up at her father, suddenly remembering something.

'_How… long is it since you've slept?' _

'_Fourteen years.' _

Kratos voice echoed inside her head, from that night she'd been in his custody.

'And there's more,' Yuan continued, somewhat reluctantly. 'They had a child. A son.'

Tath almost dropped her sword. She could not believe that the Seraphim had a wife, and what's more, a son! She had to sit down, and found a nearby chair.

'So this…son, do I know him?'

'You should,' Yuan said, looking out through the window in his office.

'It's Lloyd.'

Tath's eyes widened again. Well, Yuan hadn't been kidding when he said it was information to important to leak out. She was just about to ask how he knew this, when a Desian suddenly stormed through the doors to the Seraphim's office.

'My Lord Yuan, we have intruders.'

Yuan looked up from Tath to the guard, and then back to Tath. 'It's Lloyd.' Then he looked away. 'He's come for the Rheairds, just like I predicted. Wait here,' he said, as he grabbed his weapon and stormed out, nodding to his worked. 'Find Botta and alert him.'

Tath watched him leave with a raised eyebrow. Her? Wait here? She scoffed, and grabbing her sword, she followed him, to the hangar of the Rheairds. Just in time, too, since just as soon as she'd hid up on a pair of machines, Lloyd's group walked through the doors.

Tath saw Yuan and Botta advancing on the group from both sides.

'So you've come, like moths to the flame,' her father said grudgingly. Tath grimaced. What _was _it with her father and delivering lines?

She grinned as Lloyd put her thoughts into words. 'Don't you…ever say anything original?'

Zelos turned to them, and Tath raised an eyebrow. Zelos…huh, she caught herself feeling funny when she watched him.

'You gotta admit, that line is seriously clichéd,' he said. Tath almost laughed out loud, as she could see Yuan's face grow more angry.

'I see your attitudes haven't changed. But your impudence ends here. Prepare to die!'

Tath looked at her father. Wasn't that a bit… harsh? Seeming as Lloyd was know the child of Kratos and all. Wouldn't it be good to have Lloyd as a leverage? She made a note to herself to tell Yuan that later.

'I'll show you the differences of our strength,' Yuan hissed to Lloyd as the boy rushed him. And not that he didn't try. Yuan knocked Lloyd well out of his senses several times, but once Lloyd's group had defeated Botta, there was really nothing Yuan could do, and Tath watched as her father got defeated. She snorted, as least she had been able to defeat them, and fainted afterwards. She gave a why smile.

Then she was suddenly forced to grab hold to the machine she was sitting on as the ground started to shake. Lloyd and the others took the chance to steal the Rheairds, and escaped. As soon as the earthquake calmed down, Botta turned to Yuan.

'Sir! The earthquake! Could a mana link have been destroyed?'

Yuan fell into thoughts, looking after the escaping group. '…Possibly. Investigate the matter immediately.'

Botta followed his gaze to the where the group had been.

'What about Lloyd and the others?'

Yuan motioned for Botta to leave. 'It doesn't matter. Our little friend can tell us where they are at any time.'

And with those words, Botta left, along with another worker.

Yuan gave a frustrated sigh. One day, he would get Lloyd, but he always escaped. His attention was suddenly turned upwards, as he heard Tath clearing her throat, and he heaved a tired sigh. _What does she want now? _

'So,' she said, casually, regarding her nails on her right hand, 'who's this "little friend" of yours?'

---

Tath sat on her Rheaird, in the air. She was still shocked, she guessed, once she had the time to process the facts she'd learned at Yuan's. Lloyd was Kratos' son. No wonder she had thought their eyes were kind of similar. Sighing, she buried her face in her hands, bringing the Rheaird to a stop. So what the hell was she supposed to do now?

She knew Lloyd and the others were at the Temple of Darkness, forging another pact. Yuan had told her that after he had fought them. Tath did not know what had made her ask where Lloyd was now, but she had done it.

She looked up again, finally making up her mind. She had to see Lloyd and the group again.

---

'Phew,' Genis said, mirroring the thoughts of everyone in the party, 'that was some tough Summon Spirit.'

'You said it, little guy,' Zelos said, pausing to lean at a column. It was true, the Temple of Darkness had been the hardest yet. The party were out of gels and life bottles, and both Colette and Presea had passed out from the battle with Shadow, and the rest of the party were exhausted, from the fight with Shadow and other fights.

'Alright, guys,' Lloyd said, getting to his feet, 'we better get out of here and then rest.'

'Gah, I don't think I can take another step,' Sheena said, grunting, but started walking after Lloyd. But as they reached up from the long walk from Shadow's Seal, Raine suddenly broke the silence.

'Oh no, looks like we got company,' she said, pointing to a monster suddenly heading their way. Too tired to run away, Lloyd brought out his swords.

'Alright… let's go.'

It was a huge snake, fangs filled with poison, glaring at them through yellow eyes. Lloyd, Sheena, Zelos and Regal went to battle, leaving the others to collapse behind them.

All the snake had to do was take one blow at Regal, and the strong man was knocked out cold.

'Aw, crap,' Sheena said, sighing, 'this is not going to go well for us, I can tell.'

'But we have to try,' Lloyd said, nevertheless, and they put up a good fight, but they were just too tired. They had managed to injure the snake, but it was simply too strong. Sheena fell to her knees, beside Zelos who was already lying down, panting. 'I just… can't take it anymore,' he said, glancing towards Lloyd, who was still thrusting his sword at the snake, who kept dodging him easily.

'I will not lose!' the boy cried, before his legs gave with under him and he collapsed.

The snake gave a hiss, ready to sink his fangs into Lloyd, when suddenly a knife, out of nowhere, whined through the air, and pierced itself through the snake's throat, who shrieking fell to the ground, dead, and vanished.

Sheena and Zelos, those with enough presence of the mind, looked up to the stairs, and found Tath standing there by the entrance, hands on hips, a slight grin on her lips.

'I took that as a cry for help.'

And then she swiftly jumped down the cliff and landed by the party. As she stood by Lloyd, who was still lying on the ground, he opened his eyes to set them upon the dark flaming hair.

'Eya…' he panted, '…if you'd come to fight us again, you don't have to try… '

'…consider us beaten,' Sheena finished for him, trying to get to her feet, but failed.

Tath gave a light laugh at their statement. The sweet sound of her voice seemed to rouse the party a little.

'No need to worry about that,' she said, smiling, walking over to Sheena who was still struggling, offering her a hand, 'I'm not here to fight you.'

'Then why are you here, Eya?' Sheena questioned, hesitating slightly before taking her hand and getting to her feet, 'or should I say Tatheya?'

'So you _did _recognise me!' Tath, who was now kneeling over the passed out Regal, said in a falsely overly-cheery tone. 'And I thought you had forgotten all about me.' She gave a smug smile.

'Yes,' Sheena sniffed, 'I did recognise you.' She walked over to the siblings Sage, helping them to their feet.

Tath, still the smug grin on her face, kneeled over Zelos, who appeared to be passed out as well, did not reply to Sheena, as the man in front of her suddenly opened his eyes, clearly awake.

'Why, hello, beautiful, what brings you to our humble quarters?'

'Hello, Zelos,' Tath said, surprising herself by giving him a smile that was perfectly honest. She mentally raised an eyebrow. What was this? Was she actually _glad _to see him?

But then she offered him a hand, and as he took it he surprised her by standing up too close to her for her comfort. _That couldn't possibly be it, _she thought, answering her own question.

Still, she was suddenly very aware of the fact that he was taller than her, and the way his blue eyes glinted with that special light she'd remembered from the time she'd known him. And, deep in those eyes were that soft and different Zelos, the Zelos Tath had somehow been determined to draw out.

'So you missed me, right?' His deep voice suddenly broke the silence between them, and Tath was reminded that this was _Zelos _she was standing with.

Clearing her throat dismissively, she took a step away from him, and then walked over to Lloyd, not bothering to answer the man.

'So why _are _you here?' Lloyd asked, as she helped him sit up, his honest dark brown eyes that Tath now knew where they come from, narrowed in suspicion.

'I'm here to help you guys,' she said, giving a slight smile to the group, as they all turned to look at her.


	11. Frail Beginnings

**Hello everyone! Nothing to say really, saved for... enjoy!! **

**Frail Beginnings**

'Here,' Tath said, taking a bag from her Rheaird and tossing it to Lloyd, 'help yourself.' They were now in the forest outside the Temple of Darkness, and the party had all collapsed in the clearing around a fire that Tath already had started.

The boy opened the bag and saw to his relief that it was fully of gels and life bottles.

The party helped each other heal, and no one noticed Tath disappearing. Saved for one.

Night had fallen, and the woman was standing not so far away from the party, in the woods, looking out over the valley, where far away, you could hint Meltokio, lit up in the dark night. She gave a sigh and let her head drop, wondering if she was doing the right thing. The party now knew too much about her than she was comfortable with. But that was before. She was not like that anymore.

'So where did you go?'

Tath looked up and turned around, spotting Sheena in the shadows, her green eyes glinting in the moonlight.

'…after Mizuho?'

Tath gave a smile. She had forgotten that she liked Sheena. Somehow, they were kind of similar.

'Nowhere. Everywhere.' Sheena could not see Tath's eyes, as they were shadowed by the trees, but her voice was a bit darker then before.

'Small world, huh?' Sheena gave a grin to herself. Tath walked up to her, both of them similar in height, their eyes shining like gemstones in the night. Sheena's emeralds and Tath's sapphires.

'Well,' Tath said, a lopsided smile on her lips, 'for what it's worth, you were a hell of a friend.' And she walked past Sheena, who suddenly had a frown on her face.

'We were friends?' she asked puzzled, turning to walk behind the girl.

'No, maybe not,' Tath grinned, giving a shrug, stopping only to shoot a smug look at Sheena, 'but it's the thought that matters, right?' And then she continued walking back towards the camp.

'No, it's not that,' Sheena said behind her, standing still, 'and it's not me either.' She paused before continuing. 'You just don't let anyone close, do you?'

At her words, Tath stopped. She turned to Sheena, her eyes suddenly alit with a sudden anger. 'Why should I? People cannot be trusted They only let you down.'

'Not everyone are like that,' Sheena said, her voice soft, as if to calm the sleeping monster in form of Tath, that would explode any moment.

'Oh really? That remains to be seen,' Tath sniffed, walking back.

'_We're _not like that,' Sheena started, stopping her again, 'Lloyd and the others.'

Tath turned again, seriously tired of the girl behind her.

'Well, that makes _eight._ Why am I even having this conversation with you anyway?'

'Maybe-' Sheena started, but Tath interrupted her. She didn't want to hear any of this crap anymore.

'What do you know about me, anyway? Maybe you need people to trust, but I don't, so cut the crap. We weren't_ friends_, right?'

Then she continued towards the camp, Sheena behind the angry woman.

'Your name's not Tatheya either, isn't it?' Sheena finally asked, just as Tath reached the clearing. She heaved a sigh, as it painfully dawned upon her she shouldn't be angry at Sheena. She was just saying what she thought was best.

Tath closed her eyes, sighing to herself, and as she opened them again, she could see the whole group eyeing her. Apparently, they had heard Sheena's question.

Tath paused, as she noticed Lloyd's surprised raised eyebrows. And furthermore, Zelos, who stood leaning to a tree, watched her with one eyebrow raised sceptically.

'No,' Tath confirmed. 'That is not my name. It is not Eya,' she said. 'Or Tatheya, for that matter,' she said, shooting Zelos a look, and he raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. Instead, Lloyd spoke.

'Then what is your name? And by that I mean you _real _name.'

Tath looked at him, and at all the other members of the party. Heck, she told them she was going to help them, and how did she do that by lying to them?

'…It's Tath. My real name is Tath Eya. And that's all there's to it,' she said, going over to her bag, and started looking for something.

'So, how many of us do you know from before?' Zelos suddenly asked, bringing Tath to a stop. She shot Zelos a murderous look, but he merely grinned, winking at her.

'Wait, what? You know some of us?' Lloyd asked, stunned.

Tath rose, standing up to her full height. 'Yes, I do. Sheena and I met as kids, and Zelos and I are acquaint.'

'You know Zelos??' Sheena suddenly asked, stunned.

Tath turned to her, eyebrows raised. 'Who _doesn't _know Zelos? He's the goddamn Chosen.'

This seemed to shut everyone up, and she shot a look at Zelos. _Smooth, _he mouthed to her, grinning. Tath sent him a look saying _No thanks to you, though, _and then turned to look through her bag again, ignoring the others.

'Is there something else we should know about you?' Regal asked, suddenly standing beside her. 'Something you haven't told us?'

Tath, sighing, rose once again. Lloyd looked at her. 'How about you tell us everything for a change?'

Tath raised an eyebrow, her look smug. 'Do you think you can handle it?'

'After all we've been through, it can hardly be any worse,' Presea said, bringing Tath's eyes to her.

'Alright,' the girl nodded, gathering herself. She could tell them, she supposed. After all, what could they do with that information?

'I come from a human ranch, Kvar was the one who made my exsphere, that's where I started out. Then I fled to Mizuho, where I met Sheena.' She shot the ninja a look, before fixing her gaze at Lloyd again. 'Growing up, I lived outside Asgard, and later, I moved to Meltokio, where I met Zelos.'

She fell silent for a while, since she really didn't feel like telling them her life story. She'd told Kratos, but that was an entirely different matter.

'So… you live in Meltokio? What do you do now?' Genis asked, all of them still puzzled.

'No,' Tath answered, 'I do not live in Meltokio. I don't live anywhere.'

She paused, shouldering her bag, and looking at them. 'I,' she paused, 'am an assassin. I worked for a small force opposing the Desians, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I-'

It was suddenly Regal who interrupted her. 'I'm sorry, but there is one thing I do not understand. If you are a woman grown up in the Human Ranch, how is it you could travel between the worlds so frequently? How do you possess that technology?'

Tath fell silent, regarding at the convict from her place behind the fire.

'Because,' she started, putting her bag back on the ground again, 'my father is the leader of the Renegades.'

'Wait,' Zelos said, incredulously, 'you're telling us your father is Yuan?'

Tath looked at them, sensing they believed it easier than Kratos. 'Yes,' was all she said.

'…But he's our enemy,' Lloyd said, his voice faint.

'And that makes me your enemy as well, of course,' Tath said sarcastic, raising an eyebrow. She gave another light laughter. 'Trust me, he is not my best friend, exactly,'

Then she looked at them again. 'But putting aside our differences, I am here, like I said, to help you. I may not be the honest of persons, but with my resources I believe I can be quite useful to you.'

The group looked at her in silence, where she stood. Lloyd looked at her, confused. 'Are you saying… that you want to join us?'

She gave a lopsided grin. '…I am not a team player, so no.'

'But how will you find us?' Raine asked her, and she gave a grin.

'Trust me, I will.'

Then she turned, ready to walk into the forest again, but Lloyd's voice stopped her. 'Why? Why is it you want to help us? I mean, just for a while ago, we were enemies!'

Tath turned to him, pausing for a while. 'I don't really know, actually. Let's just call it conscious for the time being.'

Then she looked at the party again. 'You should all get some rest. I won't be far away, just in the woods.'

And then she turned to walk to the forest. Not because she was going to leave them, but because she knew that they needed some time to discuss whether or not to trust her. Giving a slight grin to herself, she threaded further into the trees.

---

'So you are breaking all the seals? And the Summon Spirits connect… hmm,' Tath fell silent as she considered the group's mission. They were now all sitting around the camp fire. When Tath had returned, she'd asked them about their mission, and they now seemed to trust her fairly well, which suited her just fine.

'I haven't thought of that before, but are you sure it'll work?' she asked.

'Not really,' Raine said from her place, 'but what do we have to lose by trying?'

'Hmm, yes, that could work,' Tath said. She calculated the facts they'd told her, since she, conveniently, knew more than they did. By severing the mana links, the protection around the Great Seed would disappear and Martel, who was inside…

Tath looked up, as it hit her. Martel would die. She cleared her throat, looking at them again.

'I'll tell you what,' Tath said, 'you keep doing this, and I'll hear around, and see if I can't find out what the effects will be.'

'That sounds great,' Lloyd said, lighting up in a smile.

'…if we can trust you, that is,' Raine said, sniffing.

Tath looked at her, eyebrow raised. _What a bitch, _she couldn't help to think.

'_Anyway,' _she said, turning her gaze away from the Professor, focusing her look on Lloyd again, 'until then, I'll follow you guys.'

---

It was now in the middle of the night. The fire was sparkling, every now and then a small glow would jump out of it, lighting up the ground as it landed. Everyone was fast asleep, saved for Tath. She was sitting close to the fire, her eyes lighting up from the glow.

She wasn't thinking of anything in particular, as all her thoughts were wandering. Her exsphere suddenly gave a glow, and her eyes darted to it. She could see her blood pump through it, each wave being fed by the power of the crystal. She had started to feel the effects from it. Her vision had been failing her from time to time, as her hearing. It had been almost a month since she'd received the new Key Crest from Kratos, and it was time to get a new one. She could see the Key Crest, that had almost been absorbed into the orb. Giving a sigh, she wondered what would happen if she just ignored it. But she would rather die than become an angel. Her thoughts suddenly wandered into Kratos, and of what he was doing. Her eyes left the fire and darted up towards the sky, where she knew Derris-Kharlan lay. Was he with Mithos now?

There was a sudden sound behind her. She gave a start, unsheathing her sword as quick as a ferret, pointing at the throat of…

Zelos raised an eyebrow, gently pushing the tip of the sword away, a slight grin on his lips.

'Zelos,' she breathed, her heart suddenly beating fast.

He gave a quiet chuckle. 'Never thought I would be scaring _you,' _he said with a meaning tone.

'You did not _scare _me,' she snapped, putting down her sword, something she immediately regretted as Zelos took a step closer to her, his breath tickling her forehead.

'Oh, didn't I?' he whispered, and Tath could practically feel the heat from his body. _What the hell is this? _How come her heart was beating so fast? She couldn't think of anything to say, just to stare into those incredible bright eyes. His voice made something crawl up her skin, in an exciting way. This was nothing like when she had known Zelos before, back in Meltokio. But then again, all her feelings had been numb back then, she did not really care for him, or anyone else, for that matter.

'No, you didn't,' she finally stated, turning her back to him, sitting down by the fire again. He followed her example, settling himself next to her, but instead of looking into the fire, he looked at her.

'Why are you awake?' Tath suddenly asked, but avoiding his eyes, as she was trying to regain her composure.

'Oh,' he said airily, 'Couldn't sleep, and thought I could sit watch for a while, but now that you are here I suppose I could keep you company for a while,' he said, his lips proud with a devilishly handsome smile. Then he suddenly remembered something.

'So what's the other 'fine quality' about me?'

Tath looked up. 'What?'

'You said so, on the day we fought each other,' he said, one eyebrow raised, and Tath suddenly remembered.

'_You're the one who's been following us around, aren't you?' _

_Tath turned her eyes to the Chosen. _

'_Well, I see the Chosen has his eyes with him, another fine quality about you.' _

Tath gave a grin. 'Well…' she looked at him, 'you always were kind of a good kisser.' He gave a grin, but did not say anything else.

'So seriously,' Zelos started, 'why _do _you want to help us?'

Tath looked up, deep into the fire, her mind lost somewhere else. 'I don't really know,' she said, her voice faint. 'My beliefs on certain things have been shuffled the last few days, and all I know is…' she suddenly turned her eyes to Zelos, '…is that I believe you are doing the right thing.'

They both looked into each other's eyes for a while. Tath was half-expecting him to say something cheesy, but he surprised her by being silent for once. He merely looked at her, and That could suddenly see that his eyes were serious. Just like Kratos, that other part of him came through, the _real _Zelos.

Perhaps the man noticed this, or how Tath looked at him in wonder, for he suddenly rose, trying to regain his previous composure, turning his back to her, ready to walk away. Was he scared, just like Kratos? Scared that she could see through him? 'Well,' he said, cheerily, 'seems like you have everything under control here…'

'Zelos,' Tath suddenly said, her voice faint, but it caused Zelos to fall silent and stop.

'…How long have you been helping the Renegades… and Cruxis?'

A long, compact silence followed her question, and she could tell Zelos was not moving a muscle. She rose, looking at his back. 'Don't bother asking me how I know. I just do.'

She walked forward, positioning himself in front of him, looking up at him, seeing that his expression was not shocked, but sad.

'Why, Zelos? Why do you want everyone to hate you?'

He suddenly found himself again. '…Do you know what it's like being me? The Chosen?'

Tath looked at him, suddenly seeing another Zelos. The serious one. The one with real troubles. 'Obviously not.'

'Everyone loves me because of this title. But I never did anything. My whole life is a lie!'

He stormed away, stopping a few feet away, with his back to Tath. 'And yet, people who see pass the title…' he dropped his head. '…they hate me.'

He turned to Tath again. 'Cruxis can give me a chance of becoming normal. To escape this…lie to a life.'

'At what cost?' Tath asked, stepping towards him, locking her blue-eyed gaze at his eyes. 'Betraying those who care for you? Who trust you?'

Zelos looked down in the ground. 'I thought I already told you. They hate me.'

'…I wasn't talking about them.'

At her words, Zelos looked up, his eyes widened. 'Some of us care about you. Some of us trust you.' There was a sudden break in Tath's voice. 'I trust you, Zelos.'

And with that, she suddenly walked off, leaving Zelos with his troubles.

---

Morning came, and Tath had been up long before all the others, watching the sunrise. Her exsphere had been acting strange, and she suffered lack of sleep because of it. As soon as she was done here she would pay a visit to Altessa She suddenly remembered something. Ian. Turning her eyes to the sun again, she realized she had to tell him she would not be working with him anymore. And she would probably tip him off about the Renegades. Ian's operation had good people, the Renegade's could make good use of them.

Soon the rest of the party roused, getting ready to leave. Lloyd watched as Tath packed her bag, shouldering it.

'Are you leaving?' he asked. The woman shook her head. 'Not yet,' she said, but then looked at the sky, 'but I will before nightfall.'

They had left their Rheairds and were continuing on foot, since they were not going that far until the next seal. Only about a day's walk. 'We'll head east,' Lloyd informed them all, as he took to the front, followed shortly by Collette and Genis. Behind them walked Raine, Zelos and Presea and further behind Regal and Sheena. In the back, a few meters behind the others, walked Tath, one hand on her sword's pommel. She was wearing a pair of dark brown leggings, tucked into her usual dark brown boots. She'd pulled her hair back into a lose plait, which bounced off the back of her usual blue jacket, which she'd thrown over a dark green shirt.

They had walked for the almost entire day, and it was afternoon. The group was still walking in the same formation, with Tath in the back. She suddenly stopped as she heard a faint noise behind them, which she could thank her exsphere for. Her eyes narrowed as she turned to look at a nearby forest glade. Something shifted within the trees. They were not alone.

'Tath?'

She turned back, and saw that Sheena had stopped, waiting for her. The red-haired woman said nothing to acknowledge the woman in front of her, she merely continued to walk. The ninja walked up beside her.

'I'm… sorry,' she started, '..for last night. It was not really my place to talk to you like that. How you live your life is your business.'

Tath was silent for a while. 'But you don't respect it,' she suddenly stated, causing Sheena to look up.

'What?'

'You do not respect my way of living, do you?' Tath asked, stopping.

Sheena stopped too, looking at her with a curios glance. '…No, I guess I don't.'

Tath started walking again. 'You have to understand, though,' she said, looking at the horizon, 'our lives are so much different. I have never met one single person that I could trust.' She suddenly turned her piercing eyes to Sheena. 'My mother was dead, and I was brought up at a human ranch. My father betrayed me. You see, my childhood, was not like most ones.' She gave a silent sigh, almost so that Sheena could not hear it. 'You however,' Tath continued, turning her focus back to Sheena gain, 'you grew up at Mizuho. You had your granddad, the chief, and a safe village and friends around you. I…did not have that.'

There was a sudden silence. Sheena could sense that Tath wanted to tell her something, and merely waited for her to continue. Tath looked at the rest of the group in front of them, knowing each of them came from a safe place. 'Do you want to know why I think people keep on fighting? Because I think they want to change the world. Change it back into the safe place it was when you were a child. When nothing was bad, and everyone was happy. You all do it,' she said, motioning to the rest of the group ahead of them.

'Then what do you fight for?' Sheena asked, looking at the redhead.

'I have no need of seeing the world safe. I have never witnessed it, therefore, I am in no need of it. But what I do fight for, is for revenge.'

She stopped, turning her gaze behind them, avoiding Sheena's gaze. 'Maybe I do want to feel safe. But to do that, I need to have revenge on everything that made me suffer. And right now, I believe you and I are actually fighting for the same thing.'

'I think, Tath…' Sheena started, brining the woman's attention to her, 'that at last… we understand each other.'

They both gave a sudden smile, but then Tath looked back to behind them, unsheathing her sword.

'Lloyd!' Sheena called to the front, as she realized they had been followed by a band of monsters. Lloyd turned, immediately spotting Tath walking off towards the dark presence, a warlock, one enormous bear and a fierce-looking falcon. Lloyd quickly unsheathed his both swords, taking off towards the monsters.

'Sheena, Genis, come with me!' he nodded to his fellows, but was interrupted by Zelos running past him, sword out, towards the monster, after Tath. Lloyd raised an eyebrow. 'Er, okay, Genis stay here.'

The wizard gave a sigh, but stayed put.

Tath reached the battle first, ducking from a blow from the bear, immediately heading for the warlock. He used his staff to summon a spell, but Tath was to quick. She thrust her sword at him, hitting his staff, but it did not break. By now Zelos had reached the battle, but he was stopped from getting to Tath by the big bear. It took a swipe at him, but he raised his sword, blocking the blow and at the same time hurting the bear. It gave a roar, and advanced at the man.

The warlock turned out to be surprisingly good at near-combat, something Tath had not predicted. Also, his staff was strong enough to stand up against her sword. But Tath spun around, and then quickly making a high jump over the warlock, landing behind him, and trust her sword through him. He gave a gasp, but no other sound escaped his lips. He then vanished, before he even fell to the ground. Suddenly she stopped, as her vision disappeared. She could not heard anything, saved for a ringing sound in her ears. She completely disappeared out of the battle, and the whole reality.

'Tath!' Zelos cried out in warning, but it was too late. The bear had turned to Tath, and with one powerful swipe with his arm, hit Tath. Weak and taken off-guard, she was knocked away, flying backwards like a projectile, landing hard on the grass, knocked out.

'Tath!' Zelos exclaimed, moving towards the unconscious girl, but the bear moved in his way. Finally, Lloyd and Sheena reached them as they had been busy fighting the falcon. As it finally had fallen, they advanced towards Zelos' side. The red-haired man ducked for the bear's attack, and then thrust his sword into the belly of the bear. But its fur was thick, and the man's sword barely grazed the animal's flesh.

'Demon Seal!'

Sheena's voice reached his ears, and her attack knocked the bear off-guard. Both Zelos and Lloyd took the opportunity to hit the bear, using their Sonic Thrust attack. The bear gave a roar, and Zelos suddenly concentrated his mana to follow it up with Grave. Sharp rocks shot out from the ground, hitting the bear several times. With one final thrust of Lloyd's sword, the creature was defeated and the battle was over.

'Ha! They'll think twice before following us again…' Lloyd started, but suddenly fell silent as he realized Zelos was gone, and his eyes turned to Tath, where the man already was.

He kneeled beside her. 'Tath?' he said, brushing the hair out of her face, his fingers grazing her cheek. Her eyelids fluttered open, her eyes first wandering, then locating Zelos' pale blue worried eyes, and rested upon them.

She moved to sit up, but Zelos placed a hand on her shoulder. 'Steady.'

'I'm _fine,' _she snapped, finding herself again, shoving his hand away, and stood up. Unfortunately she did it a bit too fast, losing her balance and would've fell, if Zelos had not gently grabbed her arm, holding her upright. She quickly snatched it away, looking sourly at him. He looked back at her, his gaze raw. Tath knew he was pleading to her, not to be angry with him. He knew she was the only one who treated him… like a friend.

'It's your exsphere, isn't it?' Lloyd asked, nodding towards her hand with the glowing orb. Her hand rubbed it gently, and it responded by giving a subtle glow. 'Yes,' she replied. 'I will have to renew it.'

'I'll do it,' Lloyd offered. 'I did it last time.'

Tath gave a crooked smile. 'No offence, but I think I'll rely on the professionals when it comes to this.'

Lloyd gave a shrug, but didn't push the matter further.

'Alright, everyone, we'll set camp here tonight!'

'No,' Tath argued. 'We should reach the Seal first.'

'No, we shouldn't,' Zelos replied. 'You need to rest,' he stated, his voice a sense of finality to it, and no one argued. Not even Tath, as she looked darkly at him.

---

Once again, Tath found herself spending another evening with the group. She was not going to stay however, since she needed a new Key Crest. Real soon, too. The group was by the fire, all of them sleeping. They had eaten a light dinner together and Tath found to her surprise that she rather enjoyed the company.

She shot a glance at the sleeping frames of the party, and then resumed packing her back, finally rising and shouldering it. Turning, she then walked into the black woods, vanishing into the dark.

'…So you're leaving.'

The voice of Zelos' voice startled her, and giving a start she spun around, hand reaching for her sword. As she returned to her senses, she let go. The man stood under a tree, his pale blue eyes filled with something Tath found hard to read in the darkness.

It was strange; the man had been acting nothing like his old self the last few days. He was nothing like the cheery and flirty Zelos. He had grown into the mature and soft man he really was inside.

'Yes, I'm leaving,' Tath replied sourly. She could not help it, she still felt disappointed at him for his betrayal. 'What do you want, Zelos?' she sighed.

'I want you to still trust me,' he said, taking a step forward into the moonlight, and Tath could see there was something honest in his eyes.

'I tried, Zelos,' she said, walking away again, 'but you just proved why I shouldn't. Just like everyone else.'

'…that's because you don't know the whole story.'

Tath stopped. What was this now? Knowing she'd regret it, she heaved a sigh and turned back. 'What do you mean?'

Zelos took another few steps forward, quickly narrowing the space between them. 'Cruxis will always be after Colette, since she is the vessel of Martel. What if I told you they have something that could help her? Something that could free her.'

Tath looked at him, eyes widened in surprise. 'I would say…' Her voice trailed away as she thought of nothing to say. Suddenly she remembered something though, and narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

'…what about the other things you said? Last night? I suppose you just _happened _to find out about this thing Cruxis has and then decided to join them?'

Zelos' eyes left her, and fell to the ground. '…no. What I said last night is… true.'

Tath gave a sniff, but did not walk away. Zelos looked up again, into her eyes. 'I cannot deny how I feel, but I can still do this. But if it is to work, I can't have Lloyd and the others knowing about it.'

'I won't tell them,' Tath suddenly stated in a grim voice.

Zelos eyes were sad but honest, as he searched for something else in the cold eyes of Tath.

'Tath,' he said. 'To do this… I need someone who trusts me.'

It almost seemed like he was on the verge of tears, and strangely enough, so was Tath. They were close, breathing each other's air, as Zelos spoke again. 'I need you to trust me, Tath.'

And then he let his lips meet hers. Softly, just a light kiss. She closed her eyes, letting a tear find its way down her cheek. She felt torn: she both loved and despised the man in front of her. But now that they kissed, she found that she could not break free. Resting his hands on her cheeks, he deepened the kiss, as she pressed closer to him. Suddenly, though, she parted from him, another tear falling from her eyes.

'Don't… don't ask me to do that,' she whispered, afraid her voice would not carry if she spoke any louder. She just did not trust people. She never did. And now, she was to trust this man in front of her? The most unpredictable man she had ever known? It was a blind leap, something Tath would never do. But times where changing. And perhaps that was why she suddenly looked into his eyes, opening her mouth.

'I _do _trust you, Zelos.'

**Well? What do you think? Please, please review!!! **


	12. Conspiracy

**Hello everyone! Soo sorry for the long wait, just had a brief lack of inspiration, that's all! Anyway, here's the latest chapter of A Daughter of Symphony!! **

_**Conspiracy**_

'Lord Yuan. A Tatheya is here to see you.'

The seraphim looked up from his desk. The Desian awaited his answer, as he stood up. 'Send her in.'

It appeared as if Tath had been waiting just around the corner, since as soon as the Desian had left, she walked in.

'Hello, father,' she greeted, immediately going to his desk, looking through some papers he'd been working with. Yuan mentally twitched at the cold tone she used whenever she called him father.

'Hmm,' she said, as she put the papers down. 'Nothing new has happened here, I see.'

'What is it, Tath?' Yuan asked impatiently, tired of her rudeness.

'I have some information for you.'

'Really?' Yuan asked bored, sitting down at his desk again. 'Enlighten me.'

'It is about Lloyd's group.'

Yuan looked up, eyebrows raised unimpressed, regarding Tath who leaned to his desk, her gaze locking onto his.

'I know Zelos is your source of information of the group's activity, but I know more than he does.', Tath said, suddenly eager.

Yuan's expression suddenly turned into interest. 'Then tell me what you know that I don't.'

Tath sunk down on a chair opposite him.

'The group is breaking all the seals to free the Summon Spirits, but this you already know, right?'

'Yes, I do,' Yuan said, suddenly standing up. 'And I also know that it will sever the mana links, causing the two worlds to break free.'

Tath looked at him, wondering where he was going with this.

He turned to his daughter. 'I will ask for the cooperation of Lloyd and his group. I believe we are for once, working for the same goal.'

Tath's eyes widened in surprise. 'Are you sure it will work? With all that mana… will the Great Seed really evolve?'

'It's our best shot,' Yuan said, his back turned to her.

Tath looked at him, suddenly regretting the words she was about to speak.

'Yuan, if we do this, then…' she paused. '…then Martel will die.'

A sudden silence followed, to which Tath actually felt sorry for her father for once. Then he suddenly turned around, his face determined.

'I know,' he said. 'But some things are more important.'

---

Finally Tath was on her own again.

It had been another two weeks since she had left Zelos and the others, and she had passed some time at Altessa's, who had upgraded her Key Crest. Shortly after Tath had left the others, she had quickly decided not to think about the conversation between her and Zelos, as she only felt torn when she thought about it.

The Rheaird soared quietly through the air in the skies of Sylvarant. After visiting Altessa, she'd figured that maybe she should report to Ian. Maybe tell him that she wanted to quit, that she was going to work with bigger resources, like the Renegades. She didn't know what to say to him, but she guessed she would improvise.

Suddenly over her Rheaird's soft humming she thought she heard another sound. A rumbling.

Tath stopped the Rheaird, by the Tower of Salvation. Something was causing her Rheaird to shake. It was then she realised that the whole ground was shaking and gravity was what was causing the shaking Rheaird.

Had another mana link been severed?

Tath brought the Rheaird a few metres down to see what was happening. There was something wrong. This earthquake was bigger than the others. Then she saw a movement by the Tower. A root, a giant root suddenly shot out of the ground, twisting itself around the Tower, shortly followed by another root. Tath gasped. What was this?

The…Giant Kharlan Tree? It couldn't be…

But then, as she thought again, it was possible. The roots kept shooting up, they had soon covered the whole Tower. The protection around the seed had been broken, and instead of absorbing Martel and growing again, it was spinning out of control and growing into this…monstrous thing.

Suddenly the roots lashed out and shot over the ground, then buried down only to reappear again, dangerously near Palmacosta.

Then, as Tath had a sudden urge to get away from there, a root shot out in front of her and the Rheaird, then bashed down in the ground with an enormous thunder. As Tath pulled the Rheaird upwards to avoid it her eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of something…

Deep within the demonic roots, there was a glimpse of light. And as Tath looked closer she saw that it was a person. The realisation came as a cold shower to Tath as she couldn't stop staring at her.

Martel. There she was, the Goddess, the Sister, the…everything. And it that moment of awe, Tath failed to notice the giant root shooting up from the ground right towards her…

It hit her with a large bang, cutting the Rheaird in two and sending Tath flying like a projectile through the air, not giving her time to save herself and she hit the ground so hard that no one, even equipped with a normal exsphere could survive. Except for Tath. Strengthened beyond belief by her exsphere and Cruxis Crystal, she lay on the ground for a while before groaning in pain.

'Ouch,' she grunted, 'now that _hurt_.'

Then she looked up, and managed to raise herself to her elbows. It seemed the tree had stabilised somewhat and wasn't growing as fast. But as she turned her head to her left she saw to her surprise that the whole city of Palmacosta had been wiped to the ground.

What the hell had happened? She staggered to her feet, looking around. She had to get to Yuan and Lloyd's group.

She looked around. Where was her Rheaird?

The answer came falling from the sky. Literally. The blue wing of her Rheaird suddenly crashed down by her feet.

Tath sighed. 'Oh, crap.'

Then she looked up to the sky. There was now only one way.

Lloyd's group and Kratos walked slowly through the Forest of Iselia. Kratos seemed to be more silent than usual, his eyes travelling up and down the hills. No one in Lloyd's group knew that this was the place where he had lost Anna and Lloyd, fifteen years ago.

Suddenly there was a movement in a bush and everyone turned, weapons out, only to see Tath stumbling out of the bush, loose her footing, but Kratos quickly caught her. With his help she managed to stand up, and the group now saw that she was fatally wounded. Her bruises had started showing, she had a big cut in her side and she was holding her arm that probably was broken.

'Tath!' Lloyd exclaimed, 'Are you alright?!'

Tath looked up. 'Well, if you consider the fact that I was hit by one enormous root and fell from the sky-' She was hit by another shot of pain from her arm and suddenly grew angry. 'Dammit! …Just what the hell happened!?'

'The Giant Kharlan Tree,' Kratos was first to answer. 'When the protection around the Great Seed disappeared it spun out of control, and will soon absorb Martel.'

'…I saw her,' Tath suddenly said, and looked up. 'Martel.'

Everyone seemed in awe, saved for Kratos, who helped Tath stand up better.

'You need medical treatment. Right now your exsphere is supporting you but you need help. I suggest we take her back to Dirk.'

Everyone nodded, except Lloyd who stood with a puzzled look on his face.

'Do you two…know each other?' he asked, and suddenly the others in the group realised that Lloyd was right in his question and they, too, turned to look at Tath and Kratos.

'Yes,' Tath said, heaving a sigh, 'we know each other. But,' she then added, 'that is none of your business.' Kratos couldn't help to give a small grin and Tath's stubborn answer. The group gave up and followed as Kratos helped Tath move down the hill.

'What are you going to do now?' Tath asked them, limping by Kratos' side.

'The Mana that is feeding the tree must be shut off, but the Iselian Ranch doesn't obey our orders. We have to infiltrate it and stop Forcystus,' he replied. Tath nodded.

---

'Ouch,' Tath grunted, as Zelos and Kratos helped her sit down on a bed, and the group watched as Dirk quickly examined her arm and then moved on to bandage it. Tath looked up to the group. 'Shouldn't you get going?' she asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Oh? Yeah, right. Well, if you'll be alright…' Lloyd started, to which Tath interrupted him with a look, stating him as stupid, asking her if _she _would he all right. The group, without Sheena, Tath noticed, soon moved out of the room, down the stairs. Before they left, however, Tath looked at them.

'Hey,' she said, stopping Lloyd and Kratos with her voice. The others in the group had already descended the stairs. 'I've heard of this Forcystus. He's not a walk in the park. Be careful.'

'Okay,' Lloyd nodded and then walked down the stairs, and Tath's eyes moved up to Kratos, who gave a nod and the faintest of smiles, to then leave.

'He's looking very cheery today, isn't he?' a voice suddenly said from beside the bed. Tath looked up to see Zelos standing there, lingering in the room.

'Shouldn't you be going?' she asked him, as he sat down on the bed beside her. He suddenly reached out and gently took her hand. 'I'll catch up,' he shrugged. Tath gave a smile and put her hand on his arm. 'Zelos,' she grinned, 'go.'

He looked at her. 'Will you be here when we get back?'

Tath gave him a perfectly serious face. 'Yes, I will,' she replied.

And he left.

Whereas Tath immediately gathered some of her things and limped up out of the bed, pulling her jacket on and sheathing her sword. She stopped and listened for Dirk, who was moving around on the ground floor. She then stepped out on the balcony looking out at the horizon. Sure, she would be there when they got back, but she didn't necessarily have to be there when they were gone.

She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, and then leapt out the balcony, as if diving.

---

Tath tumbled down in a sand dune, and as she stopped she lay gasping in pain. She had landed right on her arm, and she guessed her bruises weren't going to feel much better of that fall. Still, as she looked up, she was outside the Sylvarant Base. Yuan's base.

She dragged herself to her feet and somehow managed to get inside. She completely ignored the pain; there was something she _had _to tell Yuan, no matter how much it hurt.

As the doors to the hangar opened, where she had somehow sensed her would be, she almost collapsed inside.

'Tath? Tath, are you all right?' she hard Yuan's voice beside her in a moment. As Tath looked up at him, she knew she was right. For as she had been falling through the air earlier that day, with the Rheaird and the Tree, she'd thought of one person. Yuan, her father. And it was then, when she thought she was going to die, that she realized she had missed him. Missed her father for all her life.

'I'm sorry,' she finally said, apologising for all her years of chill. Finally she had realized she did need him. For he was all she had, initially.

Yuan pulled away, and held her at an arm's length, looking into her eyes he knew was his, his own filled with tears. 'Tath, don't ever be sorry. I'm the one who is sorry. And I should've told you that every day.'

---

Tath was sitting by the table, watching Dirk cook breakfast. She was feeling strangely at peace. No longer feeling the anger towards her father, she felt like she could truly be at peace. She focused in on the dwarf again. During her days at his house, she had gotten to know the dwarf pretty well. He was kind, yet filled with honour. It wasn't hard to see where Lloyd had learned his good conscious.

Suddenly she heard something. She knew the dwarf couldn't hear as well as she could, but she definitely heard foot steps. Of a group. Suddenly she lit up.

She looked at Altessa. 'They're back!'

And with that, she suddenly got to her feet, ran to the door, and burst out. Once outside, it took her some time to spot them, but then she saw the dark brown hair of Lloyd, the reddish tone of Zelos' and the fiery hair of Kratos in the back of the group.

Without really thinking, Tath suddenly started to run towards the group, straight into the arms of Zelos. She had no idea why, but she had really missed him. She buried her head in his neck, feeling his scent, and how his arms went around her, his breath breathing in her ear. 'Hi,' was all he said, whispering in her ear. No stupid flirting, no cheap comment. Just hi. And it made her go weak at the knees.

She broke free, realising what was happening. Could it really be that she was falling for the man in front of her? His blue eyes met her, and she could see that the Chosen had grown. Grown away from the immature man he used to be. Now, he was that serious man Tath had been determined to draw out. And it made Tath scared of her own feelings.

She turned to Lloyd, and hugged him as well, to make it seem less suspicious. 'How did it go?' she asked the boy, but he was not the one to reply.

'Forcystus is dead.'

The grim voice of Kratos reached her ears, and she turned to face him. As she set eyes upon him all her emotions seemed to explode. How was it she could feel that way for Zelos, when while looking into Kratos eyes she felt her whole blood tingle? How could she feel like this for both of them? And why?

It was strange, whenever the looked into each other's eyes, they read each other like an open book. So that was why Tath adverted her eyes, dropped them to the ground and turned her focus to Genis instead, who appeared to have hurt his arm.

'Are you alright?' she asked him, looking into his eyes before dropping them to his wound.

'Y-yes,' he stuttered, and Tath knew why. He was surprised that she cared. As she looked up she could see Raine smiling at her, for caring about her brother. Tath smiled back. Maybe this team-thing wasn't so bad. Someone always cared for you.

Raine draped her arm around Genis, and led him towards the house, after Lloyd, Regal, Presea, Colette and Zelos, leaving Tath kneeling on the spot were Genis had been standing. She could not help to feel light-hearted. Somehow, she felt as if everything was going to be alright.

Then she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She rose to stand beside Kratos, who looked at her with his velvet eyes.

She let her hand nestle itself into his, and he surprised her by responding to it. He dropped his eyes, letting his hair fall into his eyes, as he gave a small smile, to himself or Tath, she didn't know. But as he looked up, she saw something that chilled her blood. The layers of stone were back in his eyes, the softness creeping back inside him. He had relaxed, been the real him while with the group, but now he turned back into the emotionless angel he posed to be.

He turned from Tath, towards Lloyd and the rest of the group, letting his hand slip from Tath's. She felt like she was crashing on the inside, as she watched the angel turn down Lloyd, dismissing him, telling him he was going back to Cruxis. Tath, as Lloyd, could not believe it. For one brief moment, they had all thought he was on their side, for once. But he never was.

Lloyd, angry and disappointed, walked into the house again, slamming the door behind him. Kratos looked at it for a while, before turning towards the bridge that led away from the house.

'Why are you doing this?' Tath's voice suddenly reached his ears. He was halfway across the bridge, as he stopped and turned, looking at the redheaded woman, the wind catching her hair, as she stood looking at him with accusing dark blue eyes. The eyes of Yuan, he noticed.

'Why are you leaving them?'

'Tath...' he started, but she interrupted him. 'Why are you leaving us!?' Tears suddenly sprang to her eyes. 'Leaving this, _me…_' Her voice cracked, but she held in the tears. When she spoke again, her voice was strong again. 'Why are you leaving everything?'

Kratos looked down in the ground, ready to walk away again, when Tath opened her mouth again.

'He is your _son_!'

Kratos looked up again, and Tath saw that his eyes were suddenly struck with an immense grief.

'…I know,' he said softly. Then he turned, disappearing in the shadow of the trees, leaving Tath to the chill of the night. Suddenly she felt like nothing was going to be alright anymore. Everything was going to hell. It was then she noticed she was crying. She hadn't cried for real for 13 years, but the thought only made her cry harder, and she sank down to the ground. Why did things have to go this way? Why did everything have to be so wrong?

Tath had never been able to handle sorrow. When she escaped Altessa at age of six, she had turned her father's betrayal into her desire for revenge. When she'd seen him at the Palmacosta ranch later, she'd handled her sorrow into numbness, while in Meltokio with Zelos. Neither of the times had she dealt with her sorrow.

And she wouldn't this time either, as she suddenly stopped crying. She did not feel sad anymore. Her sadness, like always, turned into hatred. This time, not for Kratos, or Yuan, or anyone else she knew. This time, she felt such a hatred she had never felt before.

She felt like killing someone.

That someone, being Mithos Yggdrasill.

**Alrighty! Any comments or questions, please review!!  
**


	13. Crash

**Hi guys! Sorry it took so long time to update... I was working on some other stories and had a slittle writer's block.. anyway, here it is!! Enjoy!**_  
_

_Crash_

_He is the cause of everything that has made me – and everyone else - suffer. That is why, he is going to die today. _

Tath stormed up the stairs to the Tower, not even bothering to stop in awe of it. She was mad, insanely mad.

Suddenly and angel appeared in the doorway, but before he even had time to stop her Tath had slashed his throat and stormed into the Tower.

She walked brooding over the bridge, her steps echoing into the infinity, towards the warp point and teleported to the Seal Room.

There she stopped. Panting slightly, she took the time take in her surroundings. The Seal Room consisted of a platform, surrounded by pillars, and in the middle there was a pedestal, but it was empty. Determined again, Tath took a step unto the cold stone floor, her boot sending of a loud echo through the tower.

'Yggdrasill!' she suddenly shouted out. Her voice had a powerful effect due to the echo, but it was in vain. Nothing happened.

She stepped further onto the platform, stopping in the middle, in front of the pedestal, and the higher platform.

'Yggdrasill!' she shouted again. Then, suddenly, she remembered her father's words. _Don't call him that. _

'Mithos!' Still, nothing happened. She turned around, trying to see something, _anything_ in the void outside the platform, saved for the floating coffins. Just what the hell was this? Here she was, in the heart of Derris-Kharlan, well, sort of, and no one came to stop her. _Stupid Cruxis- _

'Who the devil are you?'

Tath spun around so fast; her hair whipped her in the face, as the cold voice of Pronyma reached her ears. The Grand Cardinal narrowed her eyes at Tath in what she thought was a threatening manner, but Tath merely raised an eyebrow at her.

'You're not Mithos,' she stated flatly. She knew perfectly well who Pronyma was, but again, no reason to give that away.

Pronyma gave a major insulted gasp, and then her eyes suddenly blazed in rage. 'How _dare _you call Lord Yggdrasill by that name? And by a simple girl, as well! You will know your place!'

Tath raised her eyebrows for a second, and then let them fall into a dangerous look.

'Fine, then,' she snarled, 'bring it on.' She had been setting out for Mithos, but she wouldn't mind taking Pronyma down with him as well.

But instead of fighting Pronyma, the Cardinal called a group of angels. Tath gave a snort, and actually laughed.

'Are you serious? Is this all you can conjure up? Man, I'm disappointed,' she grinned, mocking Pronyma. She cried out in rage and commanded the angels to kill her. The angels charged her, but the first didn't even have time to unsheathe his sword as Tath's own sword pierced through him. The second angel threw a random spell at the girl but she didn't even flinch, as she used her own mana to shock him with several lightings, striking out from her hand. She then thrust her sword backwards, thereby killing the final angel that had tried to sneak up on her from behind.

Then, she turned to Pronyma, not even panting, and narrowing her eyes at her. 'So…is that all you've got to offer?'

Pronyma looked slightly taken aback, before gathering herself. But just as she sucked in her breath to reply, there was suddenly a light beside her, and someone arrived.

That someone, being Mithos Yggdrasill.

'Pronyma. I demand to know the meaning of this,' he said, in his cold voice, while eyeing the girl below him, who was wiping her sword with a cloth, one eyebrow raised at him.

_So this is Mithos_, she thought. She had to admit it; the figure in front of her was kind of intimidating. Completely clad in white, with dark purple coloured wings, and the coldest eyes Tath had ever seen. Still, she met his gaze quite strongly.

'So…Mithos,' she stated.

'Who are you?' he asked, his voice bored.

'I,' Tath started, 'am Tath. And I'm here to kill you.'

At first Mithos' cold eyes rested upon her, before suddenly giving out a laughter. Completely rid of warmth and humour, but a laugh.

'I would like to see you try,' he said and then surprisingly fast shot out a ball of energy, hitting Tath square in the stomach, sending her flying of the platform with a surprised yelp.

She fell until she hit one of the coffins, bounced of it until she managed to grab on to the edge of another one.

_Ouch. _

She looked up towards the platform, to see another group angels charging at her.

'Alright,' she said to herself. 'Let's go.'

The first angel, one with dark, black wings, got to her faster than she'd predicted. She'd just managed to swing back up on the coffin. It swayed dangerously below her feet, and she accidentally stepped on the bones of the corpse. Despite her light figure, it crumbled beneath her. She looked up just in time to see the Angel charge her, but instead of hitting her with a magic attack; it hit her hard with his fist in her face. She could feel herself stumbling back, the world tilting slightly around her, and then something much worse: she felt the sword slip from her grip.

Immediately returning to her senses, she spun around, and saw her sword falling towards the infinity. Without thinking twice, she dove from the coffin in pursuit. The wind whined past her, making her eyes tear as she straightened out her body to make as little resistance to the wind as possible, falling faster through the air. She knew the Angels were pursuing her, but she didn't care. In the back of her mind she worried of the fact how she was going to get up again, but she didn't care about that either. All that mattered now was retrieving her sword.

She could see it in front of her, coming closer, as she was falling faster. Finally, as she reached out her hand, she could grab it with her fingertips. Holding it firmly again, she turned in the air.

Scanning the situation, she felt the heart in her chest drop. The coffins were well out of her reach. There was no hope of holding on to them anymore, as she fell deeper through the tower. An idea took form in her head, but she immediately dismissed it. _No, no more secrets will be revealed from me. _

But as she looked up again, seeing the platform grow further and further away, she realised she had no choice.

Closing her eyes, she let the mana flow free from her body. Finally, she was revealing her secret form of transportation…

'Pronyma, who was that?' Yggdrasill turned to his worker, his posture calm but the Cardinal knew he was furious. 'How did she get past our security?'

'My Lord… I don't-'

'If the words you are about to speak are 'I don't know,' then you may leave this instant, Pronyma!' Yggdrasill suddenly shouted, startling the Grand Cardinal who jerked in surprise.

'O- of course not, M-my Lord, I-'

But they were both cut off by the noise of commotion below the platform. A struggle, and then a shriek from someone, an angel. And then, something suddenly appeared over the platform.

It was Tath. Tath, hovering slightly above them, with angel wings. Strong, beautiful wings, almost as compact as if they were feathered, in a beautiful shade of red, almost crimson. Tath looked at them, her face grim, as she met their stunned faces. Even Yggdrasill was stunned into silence. But Tath was not, as they now thought, an angel. True, she had angel wings, but that did not make her into an angel.

It was the effect to Altessa's work all those years ago, when Yuan had first saved her from Kvar's Ranch and taken her to the dwarf.

_--- _

_(Flashback, Six years old)_

_Just as she'd woken up again after Altessa's work with the Crystal she realised something was wrong. At first she thought she was dead. She couldn't feel anything. But as she sat up, and saw Altessa and her father she realised what they'd done. _

'_No!' she gasped, 'Did you…did you evolve it?' _

_A glance at her father, that had now thrown away the hood, made her fear true. He looked at the young girl, seeing how much she suffered and regretted that he hadn't been able to save her. _

_She turned to Altessa. 'Take it away! I don't want to be an angel!' Desperation in her voice. _

'_Relax, child,' Altessa assured, 'you are not an angel yet.' _

'_But I will be!'_

_Altessa sighed and looked at first at father, then at daughter, although he was yet unaware of that they were related. _

'_There is one way.' _

_They both looked at him. _

'_Now that the effect of the Cruxis Crystal is reversed to feed her with strength, I could carve a Key Crest into your exsphere. It would suppress the effects of the angelism, but still give you the effect of the exsphere.' _

_Despite that the girl was only six years old she knew what the dwarf was talking about. _

'_It sounds too easy.'_

_The dwarf sighed._

'_I know. Due to your strengthened exsphere, the Cruxis Crystal will be too strong for the Crest and will absorb it after say, one month or so.'_

'_What will be the effects?'_

_Altessa looked at her. '…You will not be rid of your humanity, but you will not be entirely human either. You will still be able to feel hunger, pain, and even sleep. But you will always have improved hearing, sight, and even…wings.'_

_ ---_

_19 years old. _

Finally, Yggdrasill seemed to find himself.

'So, it seems you are more than a plain girl,' he said, eyeing her up and down, all the way out to her lively wings.

Tath crossed her arms, not ready to attack Yggdrasill just yet. She was still enjoying how she had caught him off guard.

The Seraphim suddenly flapped his wings and fluttered up towards Tath. She renewed the grip on her sword again, narrowing her eyes against him.

'And now, Yggdrasill, it is time for you to die,' she said, but he completely ignored her.

'Where did you get a Cruxis Crystal?' he asked, locating the glowing orb that caused her angelism, on her chest.

'That,' Tath said, holding up her sword, 'has nothing to do with your business.'

Yggdrasill surveyed her for a moment, looking into her cool blue eyes. They seemed to remind him of someone, only he could not put his finger on whom. But then, as Tath relaxed her guard a little, he suddenly shot out his hand and grabbed her wrist. Concentrating his mana, he shot several waves of energy through her body, causing her to jerk with pain, but she did not scream.

Then, as he finally released her, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, as she lost consciousness. Her wings dissolved as the mana in her body flowed inside her again, and she fell towards the ground. She hit the stone floor hard, her right hand rolling to her side, where the grip of her sword loosened, and it rolled out of her hand.

Yggdrasill fluttered down to look at her.

'Oh,' he said, grinning slightly, 'I think it has everything to do with my business.'

Then he nodded to Pronyma. 'Take her with us. We're going back.'

---

It was an eerie feeling that made Tath come around again. She shot up her eyes, at first not knowing where she was, or remembering what had happened. Slowly, she sat up, and groaned as her entire body ached. Then it hit her. The Seal Room. Yggdrasill. She gave another groan, but not due to pain, but to her incredible stupidity. What had she been thinking? That she could kill the leader of Cruxis? She looked at her left wrist, and saw the mark of Yggdrasill's hand from his attack. She gave a faint sigh. Never before had she felt such immense pain as that attack caused her. Lucky for her she did not believe in physical pain.

She got to her feet, brushing off some dirt on her jacket and took in her environment. She was in a cell, no doubt. Walking forth to the bars, she touched the cool steel, before looking out through them and realised that she was not in the world she was used to.

Her cell was on some kind of platform, and below it was a deep chasm, which Tath could see no end of. Across the platform there was some kind of elevator that went across to her cell and another platform. And on the other platform was a teleport. It seemed that the chamber she was in was deserted. She could not figure out where she was, until she spotted a window. Outside she could see stars. Stars that were really close, not like she used to see them. And then she realised where she was. Yuan had told her about it.

Welgaia.

Sighing, she went back to the back of her cell, sinking to the ground. She was so stupid! By revealing her Cruxis Crystal to Yggdrasill, they had now captured her, and probably wanted to know about her. She suddenly gave a small grin. Like Kratos. But she feared that they weren't going to be as friendly as Kratos had been. She heaved a sigh. This way, she was of no help to anyone. She thought of Lloyd and the others, where they were and what they were doing. Probably off trying to find a solution to all the problems. Together with Yuan. She buried her head in her lap, cursing herself for being to hard-headed.

'Body 1156.'

How could she have flown off like that? How could she have seriously believed that she could kill Yggdrasill?

'Body 1156! You!'

She didn't react to the voice until the second time it called her 'name.' Looking up, she saw a guard angel outside her bars.

'_What?_' she snapped. But he didn't reply, instead he opened the gate to her cell, as she stood up. Then he promptly strode inside and grabbed her arm, walking her to the elevator which took them both over the deep chasm.

'Hey, watch the jacket! It's leather,' she snapped, but the guard completely ignored her. She snorted. So insulting the guard didn't work, like she'd done with the Desians a few years ago. If she could get the guard angry, he might attack her, and then she could easily kill him. But… she took a closer look at the angel. Completely emotionless, with nothing behind those eyes. She could not help to give a shudder. If she ignored her Key Crest long enough, was this what awaited her?

He led her to the warp, and they arrived on another platform, and it was now clearer to see that Welgaia was a city. Right in front of her was a flat escalator, leading to another part of the city, but the angel pulled her to the right, were another section of the platform opened up.

Suddenly the guard stopped in front of a door, pressed a button and the door opened. He gave Tath a violent push and she stumbled inside, were two other guards grabbed her. She was now in a room with an elevator, and the guards led her inside it. No words were exchanged between them, as one of them nodded to the other, and he pulled something which Tath could not identify, until she saw the needle. Then, before she could stop them, he thrust the injection through her arm, and injected it. She watched as the white-like substance flowed into her veins, and she could feel it spread through her blood. And then… nothing.

She looked blankly at her arm, before looking up at the expressionless guards with a triumphant smile.

'Heh, didn't anyone tell you about my exsphere? Try whatever you want, it won't work, cause this thing's strong. Nothing-' she didn't finish, as everything went black before her eyes and she slipped into unconsciousness. She would've fallen if the guards hadn't grabbed her and held her upright.

The elevator gave a _pling _and the doors opened…

Tath gave a groan and, drowsy, opened her eyes, and was meet by a bright light. As her eyes adjusted, she could see that it some sort of lamp, turned to her. After a while, as she located herself, she tried to get up. Only she found she couldn't. She was stuck in some sort of chair, and she was strapped to it. Still a bit hazed, she looked around….

'Comfortable, isn't it?'

Her head turned to her left so quickly her bangs whipped her in the eyes. She could see Yggdrasill standing in the corner of the room, still in his white clothing, his blue eyes shining with a numb glance. Tath narrowed her eyes.

'Not really,' she shot back sourly.

He lit up in a grin, a cold one, and nodded to the other side of the room. Tath turned her gaze to the other side and saw that grim looking angel stood in the corner, looking at her with cold eyes.

She shot him a dark look, but the angel did not react at all. Instead – after another nod from Yggdrasill – he strode forth and shot an injection into her arm.

'Not again,' Tath growled, but suddenly gave a gasp as she felt an incredible pain sear through her entire body.

'Curious effect, isn't it?' Yggdrasill said, still with the cold detachment in his voice. 'It seized your blood. In short periods, of course, so that you don't die, but enough to see… effects of it.'

'…and… why are you doing this?' Tath grunted, as she had worked up the strength to speak against the pain.

'Well,' Yggdrasill said, leaning down to look her in the eye. 'This little exsphere of yours has made me interested. And this is simply me making tests.' He smiled insane. 'To see how strong it actually is.'

Then he looked up, nodding to the other angel, who injected something else in Tath. She did not now what it was, but it made her shriek out in pure pain.

Not very unlike the days she endured as a child, in Kvar's ranch.


End file.
